254 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
teresting evidence of the progress of the season. 
I should not have noticed it, if I had not care¬ 
fully examined the fertile buds. It is like a 
crimson star first dimly detected in the twilight. 
The warmth of the. day in this sunny hollow 
above the withered sedge has caused the stig¬ 
mas to show their lips through the scaly shield. 
They do not project more than the thirtieth of 
an inch. Some not the sixtieth. The staminate 
catkins are also considerably loosened. Just 
as the turtles put forth their heads, so these put 
forth their stigmas in the spring. How many 
accurate thermometers there are on every hill 
and in every valley! Measure the length of 
the hazel stigmas and you can tell how much 
warmth there has been this spring. How fitly 
and exactly any season of the year may be de¬ 
scribed by indicating the condition of some 
flower.It is surprising that men can be 
divided into those who lead an in-door and those 
who lead an out-door life, as if birds and quad¬ 
rupeds were to be divided into those that lived 
a within-nest or burrow life, and those that 
lived without their nests and holes chiefly. How 
many of our troubles are house-bred ! He lives 
an out-door life, i. e., he is not squatted behind 
a door. It is such a questionable phrase as an 
“ honest man,” or the “ naked eye,” as if the 
eye which is not covered with a spy-glass should 
properly be called naked. 
