JUNE 



A redwing's nest, four eggs, low in a tuft of 

 sedge in an open meadow. What Champollion 

 can translate the hieroglyphics on these eggs ? It 

 is always writing of the same character, though 

 much diversified. While the bird picks up the 

 material and lays this egg, who determines the 

 style of the marking ? When you approach, away 

 dashes the dark mother, betraying her nest, and 

 then chatters her anxiety from a neighboring bush, 

 where she is soon joined by the red-shouldered 

 male, who comes scolding over your head, chatter- 

 ing and uttering a sharp " phe phee-e." 



THOREAU: Summer. 



8 



. . . The painted cup is in its prime. It red- 

 dens the meadow, Painted Cup Meadow. It is a 

 splendid show of brilliant scarlet, the color of the 

 cardinal flower and surpassing it in mass and pro- 

 fusion. They first appear on the side of the hill, 

 on dryer ground, half a dozen inches high, and the 

 color is most striking then, when it is most rare 

 and precious ; but they now cover the meadow 

 mingled with buttercups, etc., and many are 

 more than eight inches high. I do not like the 

 name. It does not remind me of a cup, rather of 

 a flame when it first appears. It might be called 

 flame flower, or scarlet tip. 



THOREAU: Summer. 



