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EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

are described in the dry state, as they are most commonly, not most truly, seen. They are, indeed, dryly described.

Without being the owner of any land, I find that I have a civil right in the river, that if I am not a landowner I am a water owner. It is fitting, therefore, that I should have a boat, a cart, for this my farm. Since it is almost wholly given up to a few of us, while the other highways are much traveled, no wonder that I improve it. Such a one as I will choose to dwell in a township where there are most ponds and rivers, and our range is widest. In relation to the river, I find my natural rights least infringed on. It is an extensive "common" still left. Certain savage liberties still prevail in the oldest and most civilized countries. I am pleased, to find that in Gilbert White's day, at least, the laborers in that part of England where he lived, enjoyed certain rights of common in the royal forests, so called, where they cut their turf and other fuel, etc., though no large wood, and obtained materials for broom-making, etc., when other labor failed. It is no longer so, according to the editor.

The cat-tail down puffs and swells in your hand like a mist, or the conjuror's trick of filling a hat with feathers, for when you have rubbed off but a thimble full, and can close and