MARCH 



29 



Princes and magistrates are often styled serene, 

 but what is their turbid serenity to that ethereal 

 serenity which the bluebird embodies. His most 

 serene Birdship ! His soft warble melts in the ear 

 as the snow is melting in the valleys around. The 

 bluebird comes, and with his warble drills the ice, 

 and sets free the rivers and ponds and frozen 

 ground. As the sand flows down the slopes a little 

 way, assuming the forms of foliage when the frost 

 comes out of the ground, so this little rill of mel- 

 ody flows a short way down the concave of the sky. 

 THOREAU : Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



March water is usually clean, sweet water ; every 

 brook is a trout-brook, a mountain brook ; the cold 

 and the snow have supplied the condition of a high 

 latitude; no stagnation, no corruption, comes 

 downstream now as on a summer freshet. Winter 

 comes down, liquid and repentant. Indeed, it is 

 more than water that runs then : it is frost sub- 

 dued ; it is spring triumphant. No obsolete water- 

 courses now. The larger creeks seek out their 

 abandoned beds, return to the haunts of their 

 youth, and linger fondly there. The muskrat is 

 adrift, but not homeless ; his range is vastly ex- 

 tended, and he evidently rejoices in full streams. 

 BURROUGHS: Signs and Seasons. 



