The Masquerading Chickadee[E]
BY EDITH M. THOMAS
I came to the woods in the dead of the year,
I saw the wing'd sprite thro' the green-brier peeping:
"Darling of Winter, you've nothing to fear,
Though the branches are bare and the cold earth is sleeping!"
With a dee, dee, dee! the sprite seemed to say,
"I'm friends with the Maytime as well as December,
And I'll meet you here on a fair-weather day;
Here, in the green-brier thicket,—remember!"
I came to the woods in the spring of the year,
And I followed a voice that was most entreating:
Phebe! Phebe! (and yet more near),
Phebe! Phebe! it kept repeating!
I gave up the search, when, not far away,
I saw the wing'd sprite thro' the green-brier peeping,
With a Phebe! Phebe! that seemed to say,
"I told you so! and my promise I'm keeping."
"You'll know me again, when you meet me here,
Whether you come in December or Maytime:
I've a dee, dee, dee! for the Winter's ear,
And a Phebe! Phebe! for Spring and Playtime!"
[E] "March 1, 1856.—I hear several times the fine drawn Phe-be note of the Chickadee, which I heard only once during the winter."—"Early Spring in Massachusetts."—Thoreau.