“The First Robin” by William E. Barton

Now the Winter had been Long, and Very Cold, and the Snow had been deep, and Spring had not yet come. And I rose early in the morning, and I looked out of mine Window, and Behold a Robin.

And I called unto Keturah, and said “Come quickly, and see thou hasten thine arrival at the Window. For here is a Friend of ours that is Come from a Far Country to Visit us.”

And Keturah came to the Window, and she also beheld the Robin.

Now the Robin looked at us, and hopped about upon the Cold and Bare Ground, and looked for the Early Worm, but the Bird was Earlier than the Worm. And Keturah went to her Kitchen to see what she might find that the Robin would eat.

And I spake to the Robin, and said:

“Behold thou hast been where it was Warm, and the Sun did Shine. And thou couldest have stayed there. But here thou art. And thou comest while it is yet Winter, for the Prophecy of Spring is in thy Blood. Thy faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Thou hast come many miles, yea hundreds of miles, to a land that lies desolate, because thou hast within thy soul the assurance that Spring is near. Oh, that there were in human life some assurance that would send folk forth to their High Destiny with as compelling a Conviction!”

And I thought of the Eye, that it is formed in darkness, but formed for the light; and the Ear that is wondrously shaped in Silence, but made for the hearing of Musick; and of the Human Soul that is born into a world where Sin is, yet born with the hope of Righteousness.

And I blessed the Little Bird that had caused me to think of these things.

And I went forth into town that day, and people said, “Safed, Behold is it not a cold and long Winter?”

And I said, “Speak to me no more of Winter.”

And they said, “Wherefore should we not speak of Winter? Behold the Thermometer and the Empty Coal Bin.”

But I held mine Head Proudly and I said:

“Speak to me not of Winter. Behold, on this morning I did see the First Robin. For me, henceforth, it is Spring.”