Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/176

162 water, the town and the land it is built on, rise but little above the flood. This bright, smooth, and level surface seems here the prevailing element, as if the distant town were an island. I realize how water predominates on the surface of the globe How different to-day from yesterday. Yesterday was a cool, bright day, the earth just washed bare by the rain, and a strong northwest wind raised respectable billows on our vernal seas, and imparted remarkable life and spirit to the scene. To-day it is perfectly still and warm, not a ripple disturbs the surface of these lakes, but every insect, every small black beetle struggling on it, is betrayed. Seen through this air, though many might not notice the difference, the russet surface of the earth does not shine, is not bright. I see no shining russet islands with dry but flushing oak leaves. The air is comparatively dead when I attend to it, and it is as if there were the veil of a fine mist over all objects, dulling their edges. Yet this would be called a clear day. These aerial differences in the days are not commonly appreciated, though they affect our spirits.

When I am opposite the end. of the willow row, seeing the osiers of perhaps two years old, all in a mass, they are seen to be very distinctly yellowish beneath and scarlet above. They are