;>•; gj| 



ino: colors in the universal 

 burst of bloom, and not one es- 

 capes its tender pillaging. 



Up in the woods the gray has 

 rned to tender green. The flower- 

 ing dog-wood has spread its layers of 

 creamy blossoms, giving the signal 

 for the planting of the corn, and 

 in the furrowed field we see that 

 dislocated " man of straw," with 

 old plug hat jammed down upon 

 his face, with wooden backbone 

 sticking through his neck-band, and 



JSP 



&~ 



dirty thatch for a shirt bosom — a mock 

 ing outrage on any crow's sagacity. 

 Those glittering strips of 

 tin, too ! Could you but interpret \ _ *Wk^ 

 the low croaking of the , K ^ ' '' 



leader of that . 0p~-. 



sable gang in !||$p§^ yonder tree, you might 



hear of the ap- '> palling effect of these precau- 



tions. I heard him once as I sat quietly beneath a 

 forest tree, and in the light of later events I readily 

 recalled his remarks upon the occasion : " Say, fel 

 lers ! look at that old fool down there hanging out 

 those tins to show us where his corn is planted. Haw ! haw 



I sw 



aw ! 



cawn ! cawn ! we'll go clown thaw and take a chaw !" And they did ; 

 and they perched upon that old plug hat, and looked around for some- 



