BLUEBIRD 401 



blue sky seen near the end of a storm, reminding us of 

 an ethereal region and a heaven which we had forgotten. 

 Princes and magistrates are often styled serene, but 

 what is their turbid serenity to that ethereal serenity 

 which the bluebird embodies? His Most Serene Bird- 

 ship! His soft warble melts in the ear, as the snow is 

 melting in the valleys around. The bluebird comes 

 and with his warble drills the ice and sets free the 

 rivers and ponds and frozen ground. As the sand flows 

 down the slopes a little way, assuming the forms of 

 foliage where the frost comes out of the ground, so 

 this little rill of melody flows a short way down the 

 concave of the sky. The sharp whistle of the blackbird, 

 too, is heard like single sparks or a shower of them 

 shot up from the swamps and seen against the dark 

 winter in the rear. 



March 7, 1859. There are few, if any, so coarse and 

 insensible that they are not interested to hear that the 

 bluebird has come. The Irish laborer has learned to 

 distinguish him and report his arrival. It is a part of 

 the news of the season to the lawyer in his office and the 

 mechanic in his shop, as well as to the farmer. One 

 will remember, perchance, to tell you that he saw one 

 a week ago in the next town or county. Citizens just 

 come into the country to live put up a bluebird box, and 

 record in some kind of journal the date of the first ar- 

 rival observed, — though it may be rather a late one. 

 The farmer can tell you when he saw the first one, if 

 you ask him within a week. 



March 10, 1859. The bluebird on the apple tree, 

 warbling so innocently to inquire if any of its mates are 



