EARLY GLIMPSES 



robin 



in great patches that are as fresh and sweet to 

 the nostrils as they are welcome to the eyes, in 

 some strange, unexplained fashion I am conscious 

 that the robins have come. I never know just 

 when and how this welcome and always thrilling 

 discovery is made. Before I see them I feel 

 them. Perhaps their voices reach me through The first 

 the distance so faintly at first that I do not rec- 

 ognize fully their presence. But suddenly, with- 

 out surprise, I hear close overhead that sharp 

 clucking call, curiously human and suggestive of 

 the anxious would-be householder. After a mo- 

 ment's search I see him high among the topmost, 

 leafless branches of the elm. He stands motion- 

 less, his bright red breast shining in the sun- 

 light. Then with another clucking cry he flies 

 away. Sometimes for a day or two he seems to 

 be alone, but usually within fifteen minutes one 

 or more of his fellows appear, with such an air 

 of being at home that I feel sure they must have 

 been on hand for several days. But whether or 

 no this be the case matters little. With the coming 

 of the first robin a peculiar elation possesses me. 

 However blustering and snowy the March winds, 

 they cannot fool me now. Youth and hope as- 

 sert their eternal sway and melt the frozen rills of 

 my being as surely as the sunshine is breaking up 

 every brook that must find its way to the sea. 



23 



