50 MARCH. 



breaks of sunshine stealing here and there over 

 the landscape. The clouds above fly about 

 with a brisker motion, and the paths under our 

 feet, which yesterday were intolerably miry, 

 become at once solid and dry. The change is 

 surprising. Twelve hours of March air will dry 

 the surface of the earth almost to dustiness, 

 even though no sunshine should be seen; and 

 " a peck of March dust is worth a king's ran- 

 som," says the old proverb, which we may 

 suppose means, that the drying property of 

 March is invaluable, removing the superabun- 

 dant humidity, and enabling the husbandman 

 to get in his seeds — the hope of summer pro- 

 duce. So speedily does the mire of winter 

 vanish in this month, that country people, who 

 connect their adages, which though significant 

 are not literally true, with something which 

 makes them partially so, say, " the rooks have 

 picked up all the dirt," because the rooks are 

 now busily employed in building their nests, 

 and use mire to line them, as do magpies too 

 at this period ; who place their thorny halls on 

 the tops of the yet leafless trees, objects con- 

 spicuous but secure. 



March is a rude, and sometimes boisterous 

 month, possessing many of the characteristics 

 of winter, yet awakening sensations perhaps 

 more delicious than the two following spring 



