40 E^tnuntu of tfir 2Ctres 



made his beauty and brightness even more 

 apparent. 



Three months later, when the scarlet 

 tanager and the oriole had come, he 

 would appear as very commonplace, but 

 now his was the only gay coat in the 

 fields. 



Would we remember then that it was 

 he who first sang of spring, when the 

 reality was yet a long way off? It is easy 

 to believe in spring, when arbutus is here 

 and the pasture-lands are green, but when 

 the snow is over all, how much more 

 courage it takes to sing of spring- 

 time. 



I often wonder how it happens that so 

 fragile a body, and such slight wings, are 

 the first to penetrate the frozen north. 

 There must be a brave heart underneath 

 that scarlet vest, one that storms and cold 

 cannot quell. 



