LEAF AND TENDRIL 



be his own, for better or for worse, on such a day, and 

 what marriages there are going on all about us : the 

 marriages of the flowers, of the bees, of the birds. 

 Everything suggests life, love, fruition. These 

 bridal days are often repeated; the serenity and 

 equipoise of the elements combine. They were such 

 days as these that the poet Lowell had in mind when 

 he exclaimed, " What is so rare as a day in June ? " 

 Here is the record of such a day, June 1, 1883: 

 "Day perfect in temper, in mood, in everything. 

 Foliage all out except on button-balls and celtis, 

 and putting on its dark green summer color, solid 

 shadows under the trees, and stretching down the 

 slopes. A few indolent summer clouds here and 

 there. A day of gently rustling and curtsying 

 leaves, when the breeze almost seems to blow up- 

 ward. The fields of full-grown, nodding rye slowly 

 stir and sway like vast assemblages of people. How 

 the chimney swallows chipper as they sweep past! 

 The vireo's cheerful warble echoes in the leafy 

 maples; the branches of the Norway spruce and the 

 hemlocks have gotten themselves new light green 

 tips; the dandelion's spheres of ethereal down rise 

 above the grass: and now and then one of them 

 suddenly goes down: the little chippy, or social 

 sparrow, has thrown itself upon the frail stalk and 

 brought it to the ground, to feed upon its seeds; 

 here it gets the first fruits of the season. The first 

 red and white clover heads have just opened, the 



