we more than barely endure them? No one can 

 help feeling the comfort and sympathy of the 

 bluebird. The very drifts soften as he appears. 

 He comes some March morning in a flurry of 

 snow, or drops down out of a cheerless, soaking 

 sky, and assures us that he has just left the South 

 and has hurried ahead at considerable hazard to 

 tell us that spring is on the way. Yet, here is 

 another voice, earlier than the bluebird's often, 

 with the bluebird's message, and with even more 

 than the bluebird's authority ; but who will 

 listen to a frog? A prophet is not without 

 bonor save in his own country. One must needs 

 have wings and come from a foreign land to be 

 received among us as a prophet of the spring. 

 Suppose a little frog noses his way np through 

 the stiff, cold mud, bumps against the ice, and 

 pipes, Spring ! spring ! spring ! Has he not 

 as much claim upon our faith as a bird that drops 

 down from no one knows where, with the same 

 message? The bluebird comes because he has 

 seen the spring ; Hyla comes because he has the 

 spring in his heart. He that receives Hyla in 

 the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's 

 reward. 



[299] 



