JUNE. 155 



come to my remembrance, as one of the delightful things 

 connected with a summer evening in the country. At 

 the same time, in my rambles after sunset, I have often 

 paused to hear the responsive chirping of the snipes, in 

 the open plains, during their season of courtship ; and to 

 watch their occasional whirling flight, as with whistling 

 wings they soar like the lark into the skies, to meet and 

 warble together, above the darkness that envelops the 

 earth. With the same whirling flight, they soon descend 

 to the ground, and commence anew their responsive 

 chirping. These alternate visits to the earth and the 

 sky are continued for several hours. There is nothing 

 very musical in the chirping of these birds ; and their 

 warbling in the heavens, when they have reached the 

 summit of their ascent, is only a somewhat monotonous 

 succession of sounds. But when, at this later time of 

 life, I chance to hear a repetition of their notes, the whole 

 bright page of youthful adventure is placed vividly before 

 my mind. It is only at such times that we feel the full 

 influence of certain sounds of nature in hallowing the 

 period of manhood with a recollection of early pleasures 

 and a renewal of those feelings that come upon the soul 

 like a fresh breeze and the sound of gurgling waters to 

 the weary and thirsty traveller. 



The evenings are now so delightful that it seems like 

 imprisonment to remain within doors. Odors, sights, and 

 sounds are at present so grateful and tranquillizing in their 

 effects upon the mind, and so suggestive of all the bright 

 period of youth, that they cannot be regarded as the mere 

 pleasures of sense. The sweet emanations from beds of 

 ripening strawberries, from plats of pinks and violets, 

 from groves of flowering linden-trees, full of myriads of 

 humming insects, from meadows odoriferous with clover 

 and sweet-scented grasses, all wafted in succession with 

 every little shifting of the wind, breathe upon us an 



