EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 171 
if it were the most delicate frost-work in a win¬ 
ter morning, reflecting no heat, but only light. 
And as they rock and wave in the strong wind, 
even a mile off, the light courses up and down 
them as over a field of grain, i. e., they are al¬ 
ternately light and dark, like looms above the 
forest, when the shuttle is thrown between the 
light woof and the dark web. At sight of this 
my spirit is like a lit tree. It runs or flashes 
over their parallel boughs as when you play 
with the teeth of a comb. Not only osiers, but 
pine needles, shine brighter, I think, in the 
spring, and arrow-heads and railroad rails, etc., 
etc. Anacreon noticed this spring shining. Is 
it not from the higher sun and cleansed air 
and greater animation of nature ? There is a 
warmer red on the leaves of the shrub oak and 
on the tail of the hawk circling over them. 
I sit on the cliff and look toward Sudbury. I 
see its meeting-houses and its common, and its 
fields lie but little beyond my ordinary walk. 
How distant in all important senses may be the 
town which yet is within sight. With a glass 
I might, perchance, read the time on its clock. 
How circumscribed are our walks after all! 
with the utmost industry we cannot expect to 
know well an area more than six miles square; 
and yet we pretend to be travelers, to be ac¬ 
quainted with Siberia and Africa. 
