76 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



letting in perforce the natural light of heaven, 

 preached a sermon upon the lusts of the flesh. (I 

 have this on hearsay only, but my informant, who 

 is also my conscience, my collaborator, and at times 

 my cook, cannot be doubted.) As the good man 

 thundered against those instincts which, no doubt, 

 needs must be thundered against or we might sup- 

 pose the world a really rather pleasant place, outside 

 in a breeze-blown elm a chickadee sat and pro- 

 claimed his desire for a mate, punctuating each pul- 

 pit period with his three sweet pagan notes. It was, 

 I submit, an amusing incident, though nobody (so 

 my informant tells me), least of all the good rector 

 intent upon demolishing the lusts of the flesh, 

 seemed aware of it. 



Cheerful, happy, brave, musical little bird, whom 

 Thoreau loved and Emerson praised! 



This scrap of valor just for play 

 Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray, 

 As if to shame my weak behavior. 



Like the dog, you flatter us with your friendliness, 

 you protect our trees, you sing of summer when the 

 woods are bare, you sing of love when the south wind 

 comes, you put life and music into our bleakest land- 

 scapes. May your supply of sunflower seeds never 

 grow less on hospitable window-ledges ! 



