APRIL DAYS 75 
its name, not so much from its looks as from 
the fact that it denotes the proper weather for 
“sugaring,” namely, cold nights and warm days. 
Our saccharine associations, however, remain 
so obstinately tropical that it seems almost im- 
possible for the imagination to locate sugar in 
New England trees, though it is known that 
not the maple only, but the birch and the wal- 
nut even afford it in appreciable quantities. 
Along our maritime rivers the people asso- 
ciate April, not with “sugaring,” but with 
“shadding.” The pretty Amelanchier Cana- 
densis of Gray—the Aronia of Whittier’s 
song — is called Shad-bush, or Shad-blow, in 
Essex County, from its connection with this 
season ; and there is a bird known as the Shad- 
spirit, which I take to be identical with the 
flicker or golden-winged woodpecker, whose 
note is still held to indicate the first day when 
the fish ascend the river. Upon such slender 
wings flits our New England romance! 
In April the creative process described by 
Thales is repeated, and the world is renewed by 
water. The submerged creatures first feel the 
touch of spring, and many an equivocal career, 
beginning in the ponds and brooks, learns later 
to ignore this obscure beginning, and hops or 
flutters in the dusty daylight. Early in March, 
before the first male canker-moth appears on 
