NATURE STUDY 
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 
You. I. April, 1901. No. 11. 
An April Day. 
BY THEODORA RICHARDSON. 
With the early morning light in our faces, we traverse 
the clods of rich earth, turned up by the plow of the thrifty 
farmer in the late fall. At last we reach the meadow bor¬ 
der. Here we pause to drink in each loved detail of color 
and life above and around—the oozy mass of green moss, 
so springy beneath our feet, the carpet of coarse grass, with 
a few shodts of tender green, the shiny cranberry leaves, 
among which later may be found orchid treasures to suit 
the most fastidious, beside many other sweet but less rare 
wild beauties. 
Just beyond are clumps of clustering alders; rustling, 
waving, dry flag-stalks, and tall meadow-grass, above 
which still tower the dry seed-pods which may yet furnish 
many a breakfast to hungry migrants—the white-throats, 
white-crowns and others. Occasionally a black stump 
peers from the clustering bushes; and, from ten to twelve 
feet apart, are dead tree trunks of maples, pines and a pop¬ 
lar or two. Probably these were once on solid ground, 
but now are partly inundated, standing, in spring, in some 
six feet of water. 
Across the brook, which cannot be seen at this point, 
rises the clean, old-fashioned church spire, with its quaint 
