July 
emotions. Love, contentment, anxiety, exulta- 
tion, rage—what other animal can throw such 
multifarious meaning into its tone? And here- 
in the robin seems more nearly human than any 
of its kind. 
In summer the robin is commonly in most 
vocal mood in his morning serenade, about 
four or five o’clock; the world not yet astir, 
the air cool, dewy, and fragrant, and nature 
receiving its earliest greeting of light and song. 
Morning and evening are the poetic edges of 
a day that is full enough of prose. The most 
delightful association of robin is with that scene, 
so familiar in every country home, when, after a 
summer’s shower at close of day, 
‘* If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet, 
Extend his ev’ning beam, the fields revive, 
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
Attest their joy, that hill and valley ring,”— 
while from the dripping maple one hears the 
cheerful carol of the robin, as if voicing Nature’s 
thankfulness for the blessing of the rain and of 
the sunshine. No other sound blends so well 
with the spirit of the scene. 
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