4 BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



I think of Longfellow's lines in " Tales of a Way- 

 side Inn": 



"Now was the winter gone and the snow; and Robin the 

 Redbreast 



Boasted on bush and tree it was he, it was he and no other 

 That had covered with leaves the Babes in the Wood." 



Of even more local interest are the verses of our 

 own New Hampshire poet, Miss Edna Dean Proctor : 



"Lark and thrush, I love you well; 



But I heard a rarer song 

 As a wild March evening fell 



Bleak New Hampshire's heights along. 

 Trees were bare and brooks were still; 



On Kearsarge the snow was lying; 

 One red cloud athwart the gray 



Faded, faded slow away, 

 And the north wind down the hill 



Like the dirge of hope was sighing. 



"Hark! a robin in the elm 



Warbling notes so glad and free, 

 Straight he brought a summer realm 

 Over thousand leagues of sea!" 



March 20, 1905. 



