32 
EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
pletely, and two brown creepers once in the 
middle of February. C- says he saw a 
little olivaceous green bird lately. I have not 
seen a Fringilla linaria, nor a pine grossbeak, 
nor a Fringilla hiemalis this winter, though the 
first was the prevailing bird last winter. 
In correcting my MSS., which I do with suf¬ 
ficient phlegm, I find that I invariably turn out 
much that is good along with the bad, which it 
is then impossible for me to distinguish, — so 
much for keeping bad company ; but after a 
lapse of time, having purified the main body 
and thus created a distinct standard for com¬ 
parison, I can review the rejected sentences, 
and easily detect those which deserve to be re¬ 
admitted. 
p. M. To Walden by R. W. E.’s. I am 
surprised to see how bare Minot’s hillside is 
already. It is spring there, and M. is putter¬ 
ing outside in the sun. How wise in his grand¬ 
father to select such a site for a house ; the 
summers he has lived there have been so much 
longer. Flow pleasant the calm season and the 
warmth (the sun is even like a burning glass 
on my back), and the sight and sound of melt¬ 
ing snow running down the hill. I look in 
among the withering grass blades for some 
starting greenness. I listen to hear the first 
bluebird in the soft air. I hear the dry cluck- 
