76 APRIL. 



usually in pairs and seldom in flocks, are distributed over 

 the orchards, responding to one another in their few plain- 

 tive, but cheerful, notes ; and their fine azure plumage is 

 beautifully conspicuous as they flit among the branches 

 of the trees. The voice of the robin resounds in all famil- 

 iar places, and the song of the linnet is heard in the 

 groves which have lately echoed but with the screaming 

 of the jay and the cawing of the raven. Young lambs, 

 but lately ushered into life, may be seen with various 

 antic motions, trying the use of their limbs, that seem to 

 run wild with them before they have hardly ascertained 

 their powers; and parties of little children, some with 

 baskets, employed in gathering salads, others engaged in 

 picking the scarlet fruit of the checkerberry, will often 

 pause from their occupations with delight to watch the 

 frolics of these happy creatures. 



The small beetles that whirl about on the surface of 

 still waters have commenced their gambols anew, and 

 fishes are again seen darting about in the streams. A few 

 butterflies, companions of the crocus and the violet, are 

 flitting in irregular courses over the plains ; the spider is 

 hanging by his invisible thread from the twigs of the 

 orchard trees, and insects are swarming in sunny places. 

 The leaves of the last autumn, disinterred from the snow, 

 are once more rustling to the winds and to the leaping 

 motions of the squirrel. Small tortoises are basking in 

 the sunshine upon the logs that extend into the pool ; 

 and as we draw near we see their glistening armor, as 

 with awkward haste they plunge into the water. The 

 ices which had accumulated around the sea-shore have 

 disappeared, and the little fishes that congregate near the 

 edges of the salt-water creeks make a tremulous motion 

 of the water, as upon our sudden approach they dart away 

 from the shallows into the deeper sea. 



The sun has sunk below the horizon. The wind is still, 



