with dark spots, as he flew with
drooping tail for a few rods, then sank down again in the clover. From
somewhere in the distance a Bob White's clear notes welled up through
the silence. A flutter of wings near by, and I turned my head to see a
bluebird flit gently to the top of a stake in the fence-corner not far
away. They were abroad, these harbingers of spring, and I knew that
balmy breezes and bursting buds came quickly in their wake. How sweet it
was to know that earth's winding-sheet had been rent from her breast
once more; that the shackles had been torn from her streams and the
fetters loosed from her trees; to feel that where there had been barren
desolation and lifeless refuse of last year's math would soon appear
green shoots of grass, and growing flowers; that the tender leaves of
the trees would whisper each to each in a language which we cannot
understand, but which we love to hear. Especially at eventide, when the
heat of the day is softened by twilight shadows, and a gentle breeze
comes wandering along, touching with fairy fingers the careworn face and
tired hands.

The sun had sunk below the horizon. As I now directed my gaze to the
western sky, one of those rarely beautiful phenomena which sometimes
accompany sunset in early spring, was spread before me. Spanning the
clear sky, stretching from western horizon to zenith, and from zenith to
eastern horizon, was a narrow, filmy band of cloud. And by some subtle
reflection of which we do not know, the whole had caught the golden
sheen of the hidden sun, and glowed, pale gold and pink and saffron. The
sky was clear but for this encircling cloud-band, and my fancy saw it as
a ring girding the earth with celestial glory,--a fitting path for
spirit feet when they tread the upward heights. I watched it pale, with
upturned face, its changing tints in themselves a miracle, and thought
of the wonders which lay beyond it, which we are taught to seek. Thought
of what was on the other side of that steadily purpling curtain
stretched above me which no human eye might pierce. Groves of peace and
endless song and light which never paled; my mother's face--

A star blossomed out in the tranquil depths above me, white and pure as
a thought of God; some dun-colored boats were drifting in an azure sea
out in the west, and a whippoorwill's plaintive wail sounded through the
dusk from adown the fence-row. Up from the still earth there floated to
my nostrils the incense of a