APEIL 95 



ineffable and immaterial and so stimulating to the 

 sense as the incense of April. 



The season of which I speak does not correspond 

 with the April of the almanac in all sections of our 

 vast geography. It answers to March in Virginia 

 and Maryland, while in parts of New York and New 

 England it laps well over into May. It hegins when 

 the partridge drums, when the hyla pipes, when the 

 shad start up the rivers, when the grass greens in 

 the spring runs, and it ends when the leaves are un- 

 folding and the last snowflake dissolves in midair. 

 It may be the first of May before the first swallow 

 appears, before the whip-poor-will is heard, before 

 the wood thrush sings; but it is April as long as 

 there is snow upon the mountains, no matter what 

 the almanac may say. Our April is, in fact, a kind 

 of Alpine summer, full of such contrasts and touches 

 of wild, delicate beauty as no other season affords. 

 The deluded citizen fancies there is nothing enjoy- 

 able in the country till June, and so misses the 

 freshest, tenderest part. It is as if one should miss 

 strawberries and begin his fruit-eating with melons 

 and peaches. These last are good, — supremely 

 so, they are melting and luscious, — but nothing so 

 thrills and penetrates the taste, and wakes up and 

 teases the papillse of the tongue, as the uncloying 

 strawberry. What midsummer sweetness half so 

 distracting as its brisk sub-acid flavor, and what 

 splendor of full-leaved June can stir the blood like 

 the best of leafless April 1 



One characteristic April feature, and one that de- 



