On my ramble afterward down by
the creek I pluck'd one from its bush, and shall keep it. These
cedar-apples last only a little while however, and soon crumble and
fade.
SUMMER SIGHTS AND INDOLENCIES
_June 10th_.--As I write, 5-1/2 P.M., here by the creek, nothing can
exceed the quiet splendor and freshness around me. We had a heavy
shower, with brief thunder and lightning, in the middle of the day;
and since, overhead, one of those not uncommon yet indescribable
skies (in quality, not details or forms) of limpid blue, with rolling
silver-fringed clouds, and a pure-dazzling sun. For underlay, trees
in fulness of tender foliage--liquid, reedy, long-drawn notes of
birds--based by the fretful mewing of a querulous cat-bird, and the
pleasant chippering-shriek of two kingfishers. I have been watching
the latter the last half hour, on their regular evening frolic over
and in the stream; evidently a spree of the liveliest kind. They
pursue each other, whirling and wheeling around, with many a jocund
downward dip, splashing the spray in jets of diamonds--and then off
they swoop, with slanting wings and graceful flight, sometimes so near
me I can plainly see their dark-gray feather-bodies and milk-white
necks.
SUNDOWN PERFUME--QUAILNOTES--THE HERMIT-THRUSH
_June 19th, 4 to 6-1/2, P.M._--Sitting alone by the creek--solitude
here, but the scene bright and vivid enough--the sun shining, and
quite a fresh wind blowing (some heavy showers last night,) the grass
and trees looking their best--the clare-obscure of different greens,
shadows, half-shadows, and the dappling glimpses of the water, through
recesses--the wild flageolet-note of a quail near by--the just-heard
fretting of some hylas down there in the pond--crows cawing in the
distance--a drove of young hogs rooting in soft ground near the oak
under which I sit--some come sniffing near me, and then scamper away,
with grunts.
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