Song Birds and Water Fowl 



like an echo of sweet song upon the ear, or a 

 pleasing memory on the heart. These sound- 

 less tones of Nature, springing from the ground, 

 are quite as exquisite as those that stream 

 from all the merry throng that glance in air, 

 or hover in the overshadowing woods. What 

 still, sweet lives the flowers live; like rare, 

 pure souls that spread their own calm round 

 them as they journey through the world. Some 

 of our simplest blessings are in reality the best 

 of all ; and Nature, as she voices herself here 

 and there in the unobtrusive flower or bird, of- 

 ten speaks a heart-language unheard in many 

 of her loftier utterances. A message is con- 

 fided to the " oaten reed " that the full-voiced 

 organ never can declare. The carol of the 

 sweet and humble bluebird surely fills a niche 

 that must inevitably stand vacant in the im- 

 posing presence of the thrush's grander song, 

 just as a beautiful humility shines in the lowly 

 violet that rivals the magnificence of the rose. 

 Many of our commonest songsters are like the 

 oaten reed, the pastoral, and violet, singing 

 their way into the inconspicuous crevasses of 

 life ; the earlier waves in the sea's incoming 

 tide, that fill the lower clefts along the shore. 

 In this same spot, too, one finds a magnifi- 



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