196 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
life everlasting. Our experience does not wear 
upon us. It is seen to be fabulous or symboli¬ 
cal, and the future is worth expecting. En¬ 
couraged, I set out once more to climb the 
mountain of the earth, for my steps are sym¬ 
bolical steps, and I have not reached the top of 
the earth yet. In two or three places I hear 
the ground-squirrel’s first chirrup or qui-vive 
in the wall, like a bird or a cricket. Though I 
do not see him, the sun has reached him too. 
Ah, then! as I was rising this crowning road, 
just beyond the old lime-kiln, there leaked into 
my open ear the faint peep of a hyla from some 
far pool. One little hyla, somewhere in the fens, 
aroused by the genial season, crawls up the bank 
or a bush, squats on a dry leaf, and essays a 
note or two which scarcely rends the air, does 
no violence to the zephyr, but yet leaks through 
all obstacles and far over the downs to the 
ear of the listening naturalist, as it were the 
first faint cry of the new-born year, notwith¬ 
standing the notes of birds. Where so long I 
have heard only the prattling and moaning of 
the wind, what means this tenser, far-piercing 
sound. All nature rejoices with one joy. If 
the hyla has revived again, why may not I ? 
Whatever your, sex or position, life is a bat¬ 
tle in which you are to show your pluck, and 
woe be to the coward. Whether passed on a 
