Midsummer Night Sounds 



may live within sound of the bells of a great 

 city, and yet find yourself fairly submerged 

 in the midsummer flood-tide of nature. 

 Brambles and vines and weeds and wild 

 growths of every kind will riot over your 

 premises unless you fight them constantly; 

 four-footed creatures will steal your garden 

 vegetables and your chickens; and real 

 country birds will wake you in the morn- 

 ing with as loud and glad a chorus as you 

 can hear at the end of a mountain road. 

 I take heart of hope in all this, for it as- 

 sures me that, if I should live to be a hun- 

 dred, I shall not see nature stamped out, 

 even within the bounds of our most aggress- 

 ive civilization. Massachusetts, the statis- 

 ticians tell us, is the most densely populated 

 State of the Union, with the single excep- 

 tion of her little New England sister, Rhode 

 Island. And yet, in the most populous cor- 

 ner of Massachusetts, within ten miles of 

 the metropolis of Boston, there is an annual 

 revival of nature that is positively amazing. 

 I could take the reader to at least a dozen 

 spots, from all of which the city of Boston 

 is plainly visible, where, if you do not take 

 advantage of the highest view-point, you 

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