Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/40

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26
EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

cut off his tail and legs, and substituted a visor for the head. The little fellow wore it innocently enough, not knowing what he had on forsooth, going about his small business pit-a-pat, and his black eyes sparkled beneath it when I remarked on its warmth, even as the woodchuck's might have done. Such should be the history of every piece of clothing that we wear.

As I stood by Eagle Field wall, I heard a fine rattling sound from some dry seeds at my elbow. It was occasioned by the wind rattling the fine seeds in those pods of the Indigo weed which were still closed, a distinct rattling din which drew my attention, like a small Indian calabash. Not a mere rattling of dry seeds, but the shaking of a rattle or a hundred rattles. . . . .

As it is important to consider nature from the point of view of science, remembering the nomenclature and systems of men, and so, if possible, go a step further in that direction, so it is equally important often to ignore or forget all that men presume that they know, and take an original and unprejudiced view of nature, letting her make what impression she will on you, as the first men, and all children, and natural men do. For our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed with error than our sympathies are.

As I go down the Boston road I see an Irish-