Interpretations 



Neither bird nor beast is weather-wise beyond 

 possibility of disaster, yet I believe statistics, if 

 obtainable, would show they are ahead of the 

 lords of creation, or, more correctly speaking, 

 the climax of evolution. Every bird has taken 

 upon itself, to-day, to proclaim the opening of 

 spring, if I interpret them aright, but whence 

 their knowledge ? They have foreseen it all too 

 and what little can we imagine of their mental 

 process! It may be said that the frost is out 

 of the ground and the sun-waimth has been 

 sufficient to rouse the frogs from their lethargic 

 sleep, but this apparently reasonable explana- 

 tion falls short. The frog that slept grew while 

 it was sleeping and has energies now which it 

 had not when the initial frosts of autumn sent it 

 to cover. Sleep is not so near to stagnation as 

 has been held. It is still less like death. Every 

 bird, too, that weathered the winter stands in a 

 new light. Not one is its old self and what is 

 the hieroglyphic on rock or tree that it has de- 

 ciphered ? I can read the almanac and put on a 

 knowing air at will, but to what authority does 

 the song-sparrow refer? I do not see them 

 scanning the freshening moss or gathering 

 about skunk cabbage and discussing the gold 



137 



