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A DEFENCE OF WASPS. 



" I love an honest thief." 



THE month of Mars has been unusually pacific, and " Our 

 Lady's Day' has brought us, in consequence, a thicker 

 sprinkling than usual of early spring flowers ; not yet, indeed, 

 profusely, but most impartially has Flora begun to scatter her 

 gifts, in earnest of future bounties. The speed- well by the 

 way-side already smiles encouragement to the traveller; the 

 daisy (eye of day) looks up cheerily from the meadow ; the 

 wood-anemone peeps out gaily from the copse ; the bare 

 blossom of the colts-foot, like a released captive eager for light 



