Chapter III: Part II: April Days

_Days of witchery subtly sweet,
When every hill and tree finds heart,
When winter and spring like lovers meet
In the mist of noon and part--
In the April days._

_Nights when the wood-frogs faintly peep--
Tr-eep, tr-eep--and then are still,
And the woodpeckers' martial voices sweep
Like bugle-blasts, from hill to hill,
Through the breathless haze._

_Days when the soil is warm with rain,
And through the wood the shy wind steals,
Rich with the pine and the poplar smell,--
And the joyous soul like a dancer, reels
Through the broadening days._

_--From "Prairie Songs."_