CHARMS OP EARLY MORNING. 165 



of the basin every little pebble and grain of 

 sand reflects a welcome. Deep I dip the bucket, 

 clear and sparkling its contents. As I climb 

 again to the narrow ridge the first rays of the 

 sun are just touching the slope to the south. 

 A wood thrush is sounding his bell-like morn- 

 ing greeting to the other denizens of the copse. 

 A bob-white answers him and then a towhee. 

 Plucking here and there a berry I reach again 

 the level bank of stream. Along my pathway 

 the fringed loose-strife 62 blooms, its yellow, star- 

 like flowers now the one bit of color here amidst 

 the green. The suckers in the shallows turn 

 partly on their sides and show the silvery white 

 of their under surface. The water from the 

 spring on the opposite bank gurgles merrily 

 down into the depths of a pool, singing ever the 

 tidings of its coming. Slowly I walk, inhaling 

 meanwhile great draughts of the pure morning 

 air and rejoicing in my freedom. When I climb 

 the slope and place the bucket on the shaded 

 sward in front of tent I say unto myself, "A 

 journey have I been." 



A spring frog 63 has adopted my spring. Yes- 

 terday I saw him twice, and once again this 

 morning. When I approach he leaps, kerplunk, 

 into its depths and burrows in its bottom, roil- 

 ing slightly the water of the deepest part. From 

 a temperature of 95 degrees into one of 50 de- 



n SUironema ciliatum L. M Rana clomata Daudin. 



