56 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
many bonfires. The sun trembles in his own 
soft rays, till one understands the old English 
tradition, that he dances on Easter Day. 
Swimming in a sea of glory, the tops of the. 
hills look nearer than their bases, and their 
glistening watercourses seem close to the eye, 
as is their liberated murmur to the ear. All 
across this broad intervale the teams are plough- 
ing. The grass in the meadow seems all to 
have grown green since yesterday. The black- 
birds jangle in the oak, the robin is perched 
upon the elm, the song sparrow on the hazel, 
and the bluebird on the apple-tree. There rises 
a hawk and sails slowly, the stateliest of airy 
things, a floating dream of long and languid 
summer hours. But as yet, though there is 
warmth enough for a sense of luxury, there is 
coolness enough for exertion. No tropics can 
offer such a burst of joy; indeed, no zone much 
warmer than our Northern States can offer a 
genuine spring. There can be none where 
there is no winter, and the monotone of the 
seasons is broken only by wearisome rains. 
Vegetation and birds being distributed over 
the year, there is no burst of verdure nor of 
song. But with us, as the buds are swelling, 
the birds are arriving ; they are building their 
nests almost simultaneously; and in all the 
Southern year there is no such rapture of 
