78 mature Studies in Berkshire. 



by ; for when it has gone as far north as that, the line 

 of march is nearly done. 



I have a friend who once did the next best thing 

 to this, — some will think it a better thing. She be- 

 gan eating strawberries in Texas, 1 know not how 

 early in the spring. She ate through the season 

 there, and then, coming north, found it just begin- 

 ning in New York. She lingered there, still eating 

 her fill of strawberries till they began to wane ; and 

 then she moved on to Maine, to find the native and 

 the wild berries just in their prime. It seems almost 

 as if a way had thus been discovered to eat your 

 strawberries, and have them too ! 



1 have been making a little essay in this direction 

 myself. After seeing the buds unfold and the violets 

 bloom and the forsythia pour its golden rain in the 

 city's parks, I took a short-cut by rail to Berkshire, 

 and there intercepted the head of the procession, and 

 repeated the delights of seeing the column of spring's 

 splendours passing in review. And the ostensible 

 object of this frivolous excursion was a little breath- 

 ing-space after a breathless winter. Its only visible 

 fruit is a bunch of arbutus and trilliums. I cannot 

 expect any great sympathy when I say that to me 

 they are more to be desired than trout, yea, than 

 much heavy trout. But such is the fact. They are 

 blooming in the parlour now, and for a week perhaps 

 will give their silent reminder of the woods to every 

 incomer ; no fish could be exhibited as long as that 

 after he came out of the water ; he would not look 



