upraised wings as the 
singer preens his plumage 
with ivory bill. This is the rose- 
breasted grosbeak, with his overflow- 
ing cup, his pastoral cornucopia, his ! 
musical horn of plenty. 
If, as Hawthorne believed —a 
most inspiring and ennobling faith 
for the fields—‘ each humblest weed 
stands there to express some thought 
or mood of ours, and yet how long it 
stands in vain,’ what shall be said of 
the conscious, buoyant, throbbing singing-birds? “How many 
human aspirations are realized in their free holiday lives, and how 
many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!” How 
many are the burdens lifted on their wings and dissipated in 
their music, whose mysterious message has brought peace! 
“Verily verily: you Axow it: you see it: cheery are wé: we 
cheery you”—such is the melodious witness that seems to descend 
‘THE PREACHER.” **, 
