8 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



retire to — some day ; in that autumn of golden 

 leisure of which, now and then, 



" When all his active powers are still," 



he has a pleasing vision. Oh yes, he means to 

 do something of that kind — some day ; and even 

 while he talks of it he knows in his heart that 

 " some day " is only another name for " next day 

 after never." 



A few happy barn swallows (wise enough, or 

 simple enough, to be happy now) go skimming 

 over the grass, and a pair of robins and a pair 

 of bluebirds seem to be at home in the orchard ; 

 which they like none the worse, we may be sure, 

 — the bluebirds, especially, — because, along 

 with the house and the bam, it is falling into 

 decay. What are apple trees for, but to grow 

 old and become usefully hollow ? Otherwise they 

 would be no better than so many beeches or 

 butternuts. It is impossible but that every crea- 

 ture should look at the world through its own 

 eyes; and no bluebird ever ate an apple. A 

 purple finch warbles ecstatically, a white-throated 

 sparrow whistles in the distance, and now and 

 then, from far down the slope, I catch the up- 

 liftings of a hermit thrush. 



A man grows thoughtful, not to say senti- 

 mental, in such a place, surrounded by fields on 

 which so many years of human labor have been 



