AN AMERICAN FOREST SPRING. BY A. B. STREET. Now fluttering breeze-now stormy blast, 'Tis changed!-above, black vapours roll, Hark, that sweet carol! with delight And Nature, in her brightening looks, Tells that her flowers, and leaves, and brooks, And birds, will soon be ours. AN AMERICAN FOREST SPRING. 271 A few soft sunny days have shone, The air has lost its chill, A bright green tinge succeeds the brown Off to the woods -a pleasant scene Here sprouts the fresh young wintergreen, Though in the hollows drifts are piled, The wandering wind is sweet and mild, Where its long rings uncurls the fern, Casts back the white lid of its urn, Beautiful blossom! first to rise And smile beneath Spring's wakening skies, The courier of the band Of coming flowers, what feelings sweet Gush, as the silvery gem we meet Upon its slender wand. A sudden roar· —a shade is cast We look up with a start, And sounding like a transient blast, O'erhead the pigeons dart; Scarce their blue glancing shapes the eye Can trace, ere, dotted on the sky, W 272 AN AMERICAN FOREST SPRING. They wheel in distant flight. A chirp and swift the squirrel scours Amid the creeping vine, which spreads The bee-swarm murmurs by, and now Glances that sunny spot across, Warmer is each successive sky, More soft the breezes pass, The dogwood sheds its clusters white, The thresher whistles in the glen, Flutters around the warbling wren, And swamps have voices shrill, AN AMERICAN FOREST SPRING. 273 A simultaneous burst of leaves Has clothed the forest now, A single day's bright sunshine weaves This vivid gorgeous show. Masses of shade are cast beneath, The flowers are spread in varied wreath, Morn wakes in mist, and twilight gray, THE EDGE OF THE SWAMP. BY W. G. SIMMS. 'Tis a wild spot and hath a gloomy look; And the young leaves seem blighted. A rank growth Crowd on the dank, wet earth; and, stretched at length -a fit dweller in such home The cayman Slumbers, half-buried in the sedgy grass, Beside the green ooze where he shelters him. A whooping crane erects his skeleton form, And shrieks in flight. Two summer-ducks aroused Dash up from the lagoon, with marvellous haste, Which straight receives him. You behold him now, |