86 WINTER SUNSHINE 



ready to dart up them if the genial influence con- 

 tinued. The bees in the hive also, or in the old 

 tree in the woods, no doubt awoke to new life; and 

 the hibernating animals, the bears and woodchucks, 

 rolled up in their subterranean dens, — I imagine 

 the warmth reached even them, and quickened their 

 sluggish circulation. 



Then in the afternoon there was the smell of 

 smoke, — the first spring fires in the open air. The 

 Virginia farmer is raking together the rubbish in his 

 garden, or in the field he is preparing for the plow, 

 and burning it up. In imagination I am there to 

 help him. I see the children playing about, de- 

 lighted with the sport and the resumption of work; 

 the smoke goes up through the shining haze; the 

 farmhouse door stands open, and lets in the after- 

 noon sun; the cow lows for her calf, or hides it in 

 the woods; and in the morning the geese, sporting 

 in the spring sun, answer the call of the wild flock 

 steering northward above them. 



As I stroll through the market I see the signs 

 here. That old colored woman has brought spring 

 in her basket in those great green flakes of moss, 

 with arbutus showing the pink; and her old man 

 is just in good time with his fruit-trees and goose- 

 berry bushes. Various bulbs and roots are also 

 being brought out and ofi'ered, and the onions are 

 sprouting on the stands. I see bunches of robins 

 and cedar-birds also, — so much melody and beauty 

 cut oflf from the supply going north. The fish mar- 

 ket is beginning to be bright with perch and bass, 



