The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1863-04-24
The Spring Time.


There is something very touching in
the flight of birds. All summer they
have filed the woods. They sing from
the trees. They rise from the thickets
and weed-muf1ed fences, as in our wander
ings we scale them, They sing in the air.
They wake us with their mathis. They
chant vespers of glorious discordance with
sweet melody. They fit across the lawn,
rise and. fall on the swinging twig, Or
rock to the wind on their aerial perch
But after August they, become mute; and
in October days they begin to recede from
the dwelling No more twittering wreus;
no more circling swallows; no more gro
tesque bobolinks; no more larks, singing
as ifthey were heartrbroken, They begin
now to come in troops in the distant field.
At sunset the pasture is full of Hocks of
hundreds and thousands. At morning
they are gone. And every day brings its
feathery caravan. Every day they pass
on. a Long focks of fowl silently move far
up against the sky, and always going away
from, the North. At evening the weary
string of water-fowls, flying low, and wist.
full of some pond for rest and food, fill the
air with hoarse1 trumpeting and clangor.
They are going, the last are going. Win
ter is behind them; summer is, before
them; and. we are left The season is
bereft. Light is short; darkness is long.
Flowers are suaken to rest. The birds
have flown away. Winter. suinter, VIM
TER is upon the earth g.saJsta Is3
At last come the December days. The
shortest is reached. Then q few days
stand alike Then tie solar blaze creeps,
forward a minute in the evening. A lit
tic more = till half hours ring around the
horizon-till hours are strung upon the
days--till ponds unloek,themselves.al The,
forests grow purple twigseds The great
winds sigh aud rage March busters
and smiles by turns--a giant that now ia
cross, and now kind, The calves begin
to oome.,d Lambs bleat.l The warm hills
are plowed. AT last the nights are with
out frost AT length we wake, some un-
expected morning, and The sblue-birds call
us in the tree, We. throw up the SASH
The sun lies flush on all the landscape. =
There isHa smell of soil and leaf 10 the
air,rg The popular buds. are fragrant as
balm,r1 The air is warm aud moist, The
birds are surely here s. they answer each
other thebsparrow, 1.-The blue,bird, the
r bin, and afara Of, y, on, the edges Of the
swamp tho hagsh, twanging potes of the
blackbird. It is spring 1t is the time
of the,siuging of the birds Nobody for
gets tho wild thrill Of tie heart at. the first
sonnd of birds IN spring. .,.,,..,..,. aigss..I
Oh, with what sense of emancipation
do We hear the birds sing again Il God
sends his choirs to sing over night and
death for u.s. Winter, that buried all, Is
herself put away. Death is swallowed up
in victory, and nature chap the requiem Of
the past, and the joyof the future. Now,
industry shah como ups Seed shall be
suwn.d Doors and Windows shall stand
open all day gleug. 81 Around abcut the
barn the hens shall cackle9 andG crows@-
Children shall shout...~Spriag has come
and all thipgsrejoice at their releases No
moro sinhospilable SNOW; no pnose9 blight
Of cold sdAllis uprOuise, Y Mem en- firth
with seed ,cahd, roots, and seions. 1.-The or
chard, and garden, and field ARE tall OF
life !5dAoul.a Yigsuiie1 .gaiiaaIW 10 $40
rThewinter isi paste the rain ~ oyer and
aohe;I the fowersV appear son sAe earth;
the time iof D the singing of birds il. come,
and sherEoioelof the turtlei is beard ipIosi
land.Sia sai,tgodtns 8ti "a bsdisoa sAE u