Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-22
A Spring Carol.
b, CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

BY CHARLES nl DLLN WARNER.
The year is waking up in latitude forty.
one. 1t came in with the forty-seconC
Congress. The day after, as | was going
to church, | met butterfly in the lenter
condition of humiliation-in fact, a cater
pillar-Out on the tagging, looking for
spring; going from the church, showing
that, whatever he may ultimately be con-
verted into, he had at present no religious
instincts except humility. He may come
to something by Easter but | doubt it
for there were some blue Jays waiting for
him on a neighboring tree, and it is the
early worms that get eaten. All the re-
formers and harbingers of a new movement
have rough treatment. The Jays them
selves had been out in snow storm the
night before-what Is called in the coun-
try sugar snow which comes lightly
and goes quickly, and Is held as an indi-
cation that the sap has started in the sugar
maple
On the second of March a dozen blue
birds spent the day near our house (in the
suburbs of Hartford), diving about in the
trees, running over the lawn to look for
worms, and keeping up a good deal of
chattering, with now and then some de-
licious notes; but they were in a unde-
cided state of mind. l heard them all
about in the fields that day-a day of Sc
rene sunshine and their yivacious chatter,
mingled with the noise of carpenters ham,
mers on new buildings, made spring almost
real This hammer sound in spring re-
minds you. if you are country born, of the
echoing sound Of the AK in the woods in
the first genial days when the snow begins
to melt and settle and the buds are swollen.
The sly chipmunk, whose tracks you have
seen on the snow, will cautiously peer out
at the chopper. There is nothing quite so
delicious as this beginning of things. On
the fifth of March there were several brown
warblers about, little bunch Of feathers,
whitey-brown on the breast, not larger
than a canary, but with great deal of
sing in him for his size. | think they
came without their wives, as some birds
have way of doing or, probably, they
do not marry till later. And they liked to
sit on the tips of the highest twigs and
sing several bars, of half-a-dozen sweet
notes and cricket-like trill, and then
dive sideways, on slant wings, to another
perch, scattering broken music through
the air. 1t was contrast TO the harsh
screaming and scolding of the blue jays
different ways of spending Sunday.
That same morning a large bird, that |
took for a species of wood-pecker, perched
himself upon big chestnut tree, not to
peck, but to observe; and he stayed in the
high trees all day, taking note of the signs
OF the sky and of the temperature, and
apparently making up lis mind whether it
would do to bring his family That night
an owl, of the agitating, screeching sort,
kept up whir-r-r till quite late, which
set off all the dogs in the neigh
borhOod, until summer itself seemed
to have come, with its night noises But
the owl cannot make spring nothing can
really be done till the frogs wake up. l
suppose the frog, like most other wiseacres,
has got up his reputation for sagacity by
waiting for a certainty before he opens his
mouth. The next day there was a cold
rain, very encouraging to the ground,
which had not yet parted with all its frost,
but disapproved of by the birds, 1t put
the blue jays in dreadful temper. But
one can forgive the elegant fellows anything
if they will only stay. There are couple
of them now hopping about on the lawn,
glancing from tree to tree The aristocratic
topknot, the pure blue of back and wings
tipped with white Alas that such beau
ties should be such scolds.
But these are not the only signs of
spring. The catalogues of the seedsmen
and the nurserymen have been arriving
for several days. They wake up before
the frogs. Bless the nurserymen They
have little patches of ground somewhere,
l suppose, with things growing in them
but what they principally raise are expec-
tations. There is no literature so pleasing
as theirs. What bloom, what color, what
size, what fragrance in it What a world
of sweetness and light Very double
(sort of Mormons, probably, very pink,
free boomers, large trusses of intense
scarlet delicate fragrance white throat
purple lip, bright dazzling crimson
rich blush Madame Charles Wood,
brilliant red changing to rose (she started
a rose according to the cataloguel, red,
tipped with gold dark rose carmine,
Clematis Louise, white black eye' from
Japan, one white and one black probably,
continuing to flower Tin the catalogue),
easily cultivated, suffused with orange
and streaked with violet immense bloom
er,' baby boy-scarlet, white eye (poor
kind of Injun), Christabel, rosy pink
very dwarf (alas ,, = little dear-delicate
rose, with white spots Maid of Kent,
richest shade of pink, Seedy Constance
Grosvenor, rich orange, scarlet nosegay,'
Sophia Dumaresque, zone of brilliant
scarlet, salmon red midrib,' convey a
faint idea. 1t is enough to set one crazy.
And the best of it is that it can all be
sent by mail, whether you receive it or
not. And you can read for nothing.
enjoy the society of the Baltimore Belle,
pale blush, nearly white, and one of the