44 BIRD PARADISE 



There are mornings and mornings in the dis- 

 pensation of our hill country weather. Each 

 season of the passing year gives a message all its 

 own. Curious that the observer usually con- 

 cludes that the pageant of the present is superior 

 to all that has preceded it. One of the distin- 

 guishing marks of personal growth is the vision 

 broader and richer in each passing moment. 

 This very week the day was ushered in three 

 separate times, not a discordant note in the entire 

 scene. From my garden outlook the Oriskany 

 Valley, for miles in extent, wore a beautiful veil 

 of pure white. Here and there the church tower 

 or the tall tree stood uncovered in the great 

 temple. When the sun looked out from the 

 eastern sky its beams of light played along the 

 slope of the hills, riding glad and free over the 

 highways of the great fog bank, every one of 

 them really ' ' the ransomed of the Lord. ' ' In the 

 ftdness of the day the open sacrament of heaven 

 appeared, every breath of the scene "the given of 

 the Lord's life, radiant with the glory that never 

 fjades." 



A family of flickers are making daily visits to 

 my lawn. They come usually in the afternoon 



