THE SPRING. 177 



farmer to Jupiter, in the old fable, were granted to 

 every farmer in England, and that they all had 

 different weather for their different fields, if not 

 just at the same time, yet all in the course of the 

 same day. 



That is the grand time for observation the 

 busy season with all nature, in every thing that 

 grows and lives. How countless are the millions 

 of little buds, which one of these " showering and 

 shining" days, brings into leaf! They are fresh 

 and washed by the shower ; and when the warm 

 comes you would absolutely think that you 

 can both see and hear them cracking their scaly 

 cases in which they were confined and protected 

 for the winter ; and that the little green tufts were 

 toiling, like living and rational creatures, at strife 

 which should produce the finest shoot and the 

 fairest blossom. Then the whisking wings and 

 the trilling throats are apparently enough in them- 

 selves to put the air into a state of commotion. 

 And they are all in the act of beautifying nature 

 too : some are plucking the dry grass, so that the 

 fields may look green; others are gathering up 

 the withered sticks ; others again, the lost feathers 

 and hairs ; and others still are pulling the lichens 

 from the bark of the trees. The merles and the 

 mavises are running under the hedges, and the 

 evergreens in the shrubbery, and capturing the 

 snails in their winter habitations, before they have 

 had time to prepare those hordes which would be 

 the pest of the gardeners for the whole season. 

 Other birds are inspecting the buds in the orchard ; 

 and picking off every one which contains a cater- 

 pillar or a nest of eggs, that would pour forth their 

 destructive horde, and render the whole tree life- 



