RAIN-DROPS ON LEAVES. 
151 
from the beaten track at the beck of truant fancy, who meet with 
the most enjoyment. The views beneath a sober sky were still 
beautiful. The village lay reflected in the clear, gray waters, as 
though it had nothing else to do this idle afternoon but to smile 
v.pon its own image in the lake ; while the valley beyond, the 
upland farms of Highborough, opposite, and the wooded hills 
above us, were all rich in the luxuriant greens and showery fresh- 
ness of June. Many crows were stirring ; some passing over us 
with their heavy flight, while others were perched on the blasted 
hemlocks just within the verge of the wood. They are very par- 
tial to this eastern hill ; it is a favorite haunt of theirs at all sea- 
sons. Many of the lesser birds were also flitting about, very 
busy, and very musical after the rainy morning ; they make great 
havoc among the worms and insects at such times, and one fancies 
that they sing more sweetly of a still evening, after a showery 
day, than at other moments. Some of the goldfinches, wrens, 
song-sparrows, and blue-birds, seemed to surpass themselves as 
they sat perched on the rails of the fences, or upon the weeds by 
the road-side. 
There was scarcely a breath of air stirring. The woods lay in 
calm repose after the grateful shower, and large rain-drops were 
gathered in clusters on the plants. The leaves of various kinds re- 
ceive the water very differently : some are completely bathed, 
showing a smooth surface of varnished green from stem to point 
— like the lilac of the garden, for instance ; — on others, like the 
syringa, the fluid lies in flattened transparent drops, taking an 
emerald color from the leaf on which they rest ; while the rose 
and the honeysuckle wear those spherical diamond-like drops, 
sung by poets, and sipped by fairies. The clover also, rose among 
