And again:

"The blithesome birds have sought a sunnier shore;
They lingered till the cold cold winds went in
And withered their green homes."


And these also were fragments, breathing only of sadness, which made me
resolve to dismiss poetry from my mind and think of nothing at all. I
tried to interest myself in a flight of buzzard-like hawks, soaring in
wide circles at an immense height above me. Gazing up into that far blue
vault, under which they moved so serenely, and which seemed so infinite,
I remembered how often in former days, when gazing up into such a sky, I
had breathed a prayer to the Unseen Spirit; but now I recalled the words
the father of the house had spoken to me, and the prayer died unformed
in my heart, and a strange feeling of orphanhood saddened me, and
brought my eyes to earth again.

Half-way to the wood, on an open reach where there were no trees or
bushes, I came on a great company of storks, half a thousand of them at
least, apparently resting on their travels, for they were all standing
motionless, with necks drawn in, as if dozing. They were very stately,
handsome birds, clear gray in color, with a black collar on the neck,
and red beak and legs. My approach did not disturb them until I was
within twenty yards of the nearest--for they were scattered over an acre
of ground; then they rose with a loud, rustling noise of wings, only to
settle again at a short distance off.

Incredible numbers of birds, chiefly waterfowl, had appeared in the