Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1913 — Wonder of Common Things. [ARTICLE]

Wonder of Common Things.

I live, in this little cottage that seems to have alighted, like a bird, on the slope of this gentle hill. Red and white peonies grow before the door, enriching the air with their fragrance. They charm both me and the bees. In yonder bush beside the door a ehlpping-aparrow sits upon her nest; and in the swinging branch of the elm tree overhead two orioles rear their brood, and as they flash by, their golden colors delight the human beings that watch them. Look over that stone wall, and mark how its flat line gives an incomparable effect to the landscape. See our Netr England. fields dotted with New England elms; and far beyond see those white-sailed schooners scud before the boisterous wind. The farmer’s boy, who fetches milk and eggs, left me that nosegay of wild flowers. Look! Look! See how the whiteness of that cloud glorifies the blue of the sky. Is It not strange that all these things, that go about their own business, should, by the way, perform a work of supererogation and give us so much unnecessary pleasure?—H. D. Sedgwick, In the Atlantic. ,