JUNE 



How full is the air of sound at sunset and just 

 after ! especially at the end of a rain storm. 

 Every bird seems to be singing in the wood across 

 the stream, and there are the hylodes [peeping hy- 

 las ED.] and the sounds of the village. Beside, 

 sounds are more distinctly heard. Ever and anon 

 we hear a few sucks or strokes from the bittern or 

 stake driver, whenever we lie to, as if he had taken 

 the job of extending all the fences up the river, 

 to keep the cows from straying. We hear but 

 three or four toads in all, to-night, but as many 

 hylodes as ever. It is too cool, both water and air 

 (especially the first), after the rain, for the toads. 



THOKEAU: Summer. 

 IO 



Instead of the white lily, which requires mud, or 

 the sweet flag, here grows the blue flag in the 

 water, thinly about the shore. The color of the 

 flower harmonizes singularly with the water. 

 With our boat's prow to the shore, we sat half 

 an hour this evening, listening to the bull-frogs. 

 What imperturbable fellows I One sits perfectly 

 still behind some blades of grass while the dog 

 is chasing others within two feet. . . . We see 

 here and there light-colored, greenish, or white 

 spots on the bottom, where a fish a bream, per- 

 haps has picked away all the dead wood and 

 leaves for her nest over a space of eighteen inches 

 or more. 



THOKEAU: Summer. 



