_The shad-bush, white with flowers,
Whitened the glens._
The small tree, named by the botanists _Aronia Botyrapium_, is called,
in some parts of our country, the shad-bush, from the circumstance
that it flowers about the time that the shad ascend the rivers in
early spring. Its delicate sprays, covered with white blossoms before
the trees are yet in leaf, have a singularly beautiful appearance in
the woods.
"_There hast thou," said my friend, "a fitting type
Of human life."_
I remember hearing an aged man, in the country, compare the slow
movement of time in early life and its swift flight as it approaches
old age, to the drumming of a partridge or ruffed grouse in the
woods--the strokes falling slow and distinct at first, and following
each other more and more rapidly, till they end at last in a whirring
sound.