BOYHOOD AND BIKDS. 67 



turbed, I could hear him on any night. He lived in a small 

 clump of trees which had been left standing over a sink hole 

 spring in a meadow, something like a mile from my father's 

 house, and bordering upon a farm owned by our old friend 

 B. Here I resorted regularly, every fair night, and, conceal- 

 ing my person in a corner of the fence, with my cloak about 

 me, would lie down on the grass to listen. He sat in a high 

 tree of the clump, and I felt sure that his mate brooded lis- 

 tening below upon her nest, in one of the low thorn-bushes 

 scattered around ; for, surely, nothing but love could have 

 made him so drunk with music ! 



At the sound of my coming, he would hush for awhile, 

 and then, in some short and rapid notes, the prelude opened. 

 It rose slowly at first, with many sharp transitions, or low, 

 dreamy interludes, as if he mused and dallied with his theme, 

 but now the song begins to swell. Silence has attuned her 

 ear, and Earth hears her many voices singing in her sleep. 



Yes, they are all there I Hear them, each warble, chirp, 

 and thrill ! How they crowd upon each other ! You 

 can hear the flutter of soft wings, as they come hurrying 

 forth ! Hark I that rich, clear whistle ! Bob White ! is it 

 you ? There, the sudden scream ! Is it a Hawk ? Hey ! 

 what a gush ! what a rolling, limpid gush ! Ah ! my dain- 

 ty Red-Breast, at thy matins early ! Mew ! What, pussy ? 

 No, the Cat-Bird ; hear its low, liquid love-notes linger 

 round the roses by the garden walk ! Hilloa ! the world's 

 on fire ! listen ! listen ! listen to that little Wren ! he will 

 surely blow up he must explode in the climax of that little 

 agony of trills which it is rising on its very tip-toes to 

 reach ! What now ? Quack ! quack ! phut ! phut ! craunch [ 

 craunch ! cock-a-doodle-doo ! What ! the whole barn-yard ? 

 Squeak ! squeak ! squeak ! pigs and all ! Hark that melan- 

 choly plaint ! Whip-poor-will ! How sadly it conies from 

 out the shadowy distance ! What a contrast the Red 

 Bird's lively whistle, shrilly mounting high, higher, highest ! 

 Hark the Orchard-Oracle's gay, delicious, raving, run-mad, 



