ating morning air!

*

(April 19th.)--A heavy fog all day. The mist forms a veil which hides
nature's death and awakening from view.

*

The nightingale by yonder brook, sings all day long and through the
night. What unwearying power! What an inexhaustible fount of song!

While I write, its song seems to come nearer, as if it knew that I long
for it.

*

I see every opening bud, and wait to see the ferns unfold their leaves.
Even the rough maple has a delicate blossom. Everything is blooming or
singing. There is music, even in the cackling of the hens. The world is
full of infinite variety.

*

Oh, how delightful to watch for every green leaf, and for the opening
of every bud. Nature's greatest charm is that she is never in haste.
She can wait, and all we need do is--to wait upon her.

*

At first, we attempt to note every stage of growth, but we soon find
that an impossibility.

*

It needs but a single rainy day, and all the buds burst. Bright spring
is with us once again. Spring produces a sort of mental unrest which
seems to move in a course parallel with the impulse at work in nature.

*

The drooping birch is laden with rich clusters of blossoms, and its
branches are swayed to and fro in mute yet melodious movements.

*

The best self-forgetfulness is to regard the things of this world with
love and attention.--Perhaps attention already presupposes love, and
that of the most unselfish kind.

*

A cuckoo comes quite close to the house at early morning and utters its
cry.

*

(Whitsuntide.)--The preparations for the festival afford much pleasure,
more perhaps than the festival itself. What kneading and baking, and
what joy at the successful completion of the festal cake.

Joy which we have prepared for ourselves is perfect joy. And now comes
the festival. Trees and human beings seem blooming with life, and
yonder forest is borne toward us in the Whitsuntide favors they bring
into the house.

Hansei has a new suit of the style worn in this section of the country.
When he walked over the farm to-day, the kindly "good-morning" which he
bestowed