EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 163 
fifty rods off. Here is the same chemistry that 
colors the leaf or fruit, coloring the bark. It is 
generally, probably always, the upper part of the 
twig, the more recent growth, that is the higher- 
colored, and more flower or fruit-like. So leaves 
are more ethereal, the higher up and farther from 
the root. In the bark of the twigs, indeed, is 
the more permanent flower or fruit. The flower 
falls in spring or summer, the fruit and leaves 
fall or wither in autumn, but the blushing 
twigs retain their color throughout the winter, 
and appear more brilliant than ever the suc¬ 
ceeding spring. They are winter fruit. It adds 
greatly to the pleasure of late November, of 
winter, or of early spring walks to look into 
these mazes of twigs of different colors. 
As I float by the Rock, I hear a rustling amid 
the oak leaves above that new water line, and 
there being no wind I know it to be a striped 
squirrel, and soon see its long unseen striped 
sides flirting about the instep of an oak. Its 
lateral stripes, alternate black and yellowish, are 
a type which I have not seen for a long time, 
= a punctuation mark to indicate that a new 
paragraph commences in the revolution of the 
seasons. 
March 17, 1860. p. m. To Walden and 
Goose Pond. I see a large flock of sheldrakes, 
which have probably risen from the pond, go 
