42 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS, 
which we have occasionally seen expanded, when, on digging about 
their roots, lumps of frozen earth mould, and even ice, have been 
found. Last year we saw the first blossoming Hepatica on the after- 
noon of the 5th of April. The prospects now are that the plant 
will not be much later this year,as the thermometer to-day indicated 
60 degrees, with bright sunshine and southwest wind. 
To-day we learn that bees are in active flight, and return to the 
hive loaded with pollen. An acquaintance suggests that the pabulum 
was obtained from willow blossoms, but this is an error. The 
bees have evidently found some blossoming ‘‘Skunk Cabbage,” 
(Symplocarpus Fetidus) as their flight was in the direction in which 
that plant is known to grow abundantly. The small cone-like 
spathes of this ‘‘ cabbage” come up at the edge of the bog while 
there is thick ice within a few inches of the spot. The plant men- 
tioned is of the Arum family and each flower when magnified 
shows four stamens. The willows come next, or nearly so, in 
furnishing a supply of bee food. Itis thought here that bees 
have wintered with much less than the usual percentage of loss. 
It makes quite a difference what one sees in a series of objects. 
The more the mind is trained to observe, the more one sees in 
objects and their surroundings. 
Dr. Holmes well observes: ‘‘ Nature plays at dominoes with 
you ; you must match her piece, or she will never give it up to you.” 
Mr. Emerson says: ‘‘ It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a 
man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that it 
is just as wonderful that he should see with them ; and that is ever 
the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders 
at what is unusual. The wise man wonders at the usual! Shall 
not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which 
it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that 
has guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the 
future will be worthy of the past?” 
April 4th, 1893. 
IV. 
Last Monday morning, the 17th, a neighbor found a Wildcat 
caught by one of its forefeet in a large steel trap that had been set 
and baited with a dead hen, on the margin of an extensive cedar 
swamp about two miles from here. I went to look at the strange 
creature a few hours after its capture, and was informed that the 
