142 
UniAL HOURS. 
Bums and Wordsworth, we must look to it that they hare natural, 
pleasing names. 
Monday, 25th . — Pleasant day ; much cooler; thermometer 75. 
Y esterday, Sunday, we had a shower, which has very much re- 
freshed the air for us here. No thunder or lightning, however, 
in spite of the previous heat. Long walk this afternoon. Pass- 
ing through a wheat-field, heard a full chorus of crickets and 
other insects ; they have begun their summer song in earnest. 
Goldfinches were flying about in little flocks ; they are very social 
creatures, always pleased to be together. 
Tuesday, 2Gth . — Fine day ; soft breeze from the north, the 
wind much warmer than usual from that quarter. Thermometer 
78. Walked in the woods. The dogmackie is in flower, and be- 
ing so common, its white blossoms look very cheerfully in the 
woods. These flowering shrubs, which live and bloom in shady 
groves, are scarcely ever touched by the sunbeams ; but they are 
none the less beautiful for the subdued light which plays about 
them. The dogmackie, like others of the same faniily, is also 
called arrow-wood ; probably their branches and stems have been 
employed, at some period or other in the history of arms, for mak- 
ing arrows. We have never heard whether the Indians used the 
wood in this way. 
It was a pretty sight, coming home, to see the women and chil- 
dren scattered about the meadows, gathering wild strawberries. 
This delightful fruit is very abundant here, growing everywhere, 
in the woods, along the road-sides, and in every meadow. Hap- 
pily for us, the wild strawberries rather increase than diminish m 
cultivated lands ; they are even more common among the foreign 
grasses of tlie meadows than within the woods. The two 
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