40 



BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



spreads the striking picture of Kearsarge looming 

 over the Merrimack valley. 



But let us not hasten to our journey's end; this is 

 a road where we can afford to linger. When we have 

 passed the last dwelling and the last frescoed roof of 

 the "sarsaparilla" barns, we come to the meadows 

 with their drifts of bluets, like foam on the waves; 

 and the orchestra tunes up. 



"June's bridesman, poet of the year, 

 Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here; 

 Half-hid, in tip-top apple-blooms he swings, 

 Or climbs against the breeze with quivering wings. 

 Or, giving way to 't in mock despair, 

 Runs down, a brook of laughter, through the air." 



But not even Lowell with his 1 ' brook of laughter" 

 has caught the spirit of the bobolink as has Wilson 

 Flagg in the jig whose snatch is quoted at the begin- 

 ning of this article. The ' 'bobbies' ' are rising and 

 falling all around us on the meadows, clinging to the 

 grass stems, perching on the fence rails, fluttering 

 over the ridgepole of the barns. They are dressed 

 as for a ' ' Looking Backward" dance > for the bobo- 

 link is the only bird that wears his shirt front and his 

 yellow necktie foreside hindmost. 



