Summary

Dillard begins this chapter with an anecdote about how, as a child, she thought all other languages were codes for English—i.e. each foreign language phrase had an exact English translated counterpart. She thinks about the birds she hears outside and how scientists have often just dismissed bird calls as mating rituals, but as she’s listening to the birds, she thinks there is more communication going on than scientists will ever know. It is spring and the birds are feverishly calling out to one another and she longs to know what they are saying.

The second half of the chapter jumps to the month of May. Dillard imagines the changes in the world happening due to the seasonal changes: the walrus migrating, the Eskimos going carefully upstream avoiding the ice breaks, and what is happening in her own valley. The pond is...