Intimations. 29 



when they have been found ? Is not one flower 

 and one song enough ? In such a matter, having 

 one swallow, you can make the summer. The 

 merit of this, the last day of February, is that it is 

 inexpressibly dismal. A chilling northeast storm 

 prevails. The woods moan ; the marsh is wrapped 

 in fog; over the river race the white-capped 

 waves ; the scream of the gulls and cry of despair- 

 ing crows cause me to shudder, — but for a moment. 

 Safe by a lordly oak, I can laugh at the storm, and 

 did laugh when, in its sheltered nook, a song- 

 sparrow saw or felt or heard the promise of spring- 

 tide's milder sway, and sang his sweetest of sweet 

 summer songs. 



Not a creature of all the varied forms of wild 

 life but may have its own almanac and unwritten 

 rules of forecasting the weather. Many a bird or 

 beast or fish but may be our superior in this, and 

 it is little of merit to be only our equal. 



If there be — and who can doubt it — pleasure in 

 anticipation, likewise there is in seeking out an 

 intimation in these matters of nature, and, securing 

 it, spend the hours in contemplation. This is a 

 subtle form of fancy that defies description. A 



