80 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



many, has often a place of high and useful purpose 

 in the economy of the world's progress — a place 

 often higher than that of potato-planting (never 

 forgetting, however, that all usefulness is relative, 

 and therefore incomparable). 



Now, among all the dreamer's happy hunting- 

 grounds, none can rank higher than the Alps — 

 and, too, the Alps in spring. There is an appeal 

 in this direction as irresistible as it is wide. Upon 

 all hands, and in all things, is striking food for 

 * Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears, 

 too deep for laughter, too deep for anything more 

 demonstrative than dreaming. Wander forth in 

 the latter days of March or the early days of April 

 up the mountain-side. The sun is brilliant in a 

 cloudless sky, and the Alps, decked in the snows 

 of December, stand superbly mysterious, bathed in 

 a blue fine-weather haze. Spring is afoot, and 

 standing upon the threshold of the Future. Winter's 

 strictest rigours are relaxing. The southward-facing 

 rocks are baring themselves under the sun's increas- 

 ing and inspiring presence. Numberless patches of 

 yellow-brown turf dapple the lower slopes and 

 pastures, giving the foreground of the landscape 

 a piebald aspect. It is Winter's mantle fast 

 becoming threadbare ; and there, through tlie 



