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CHAPTER IV. 



APRIL. 



April ! coquettish April ! — season of smiles and tears — 

 has come, borne on the wings of balmy spring, to woo 

 nature from her repose, to deck her in her attire of 

 freshest green, and present her fair and faultless to her 

 thankful worshippers ; now drenching her with tears 

 of balmy sweetness, and anon wooing her with sunny 

 smiles— coaxing the young bud with mild and per- 

 suasive eloquence to quit the shelter of its downy sheath, 

 and show its new-fledged beauties to the world— open- 

 ing the tiny blossom of the sloe ere yet a leaf appears 

 upon its spiny limbs— decking the noble apple trees 

 with a garment of frosted silver — while the blushing 

 blossoms of the almond smile a welcome as they wave 

 gracefully in the breeze, and from every copse and 

 shady grove a thousand feathered choristers pour forth 

 their hymns of praise, all nature joining in the great 

 ovation. 



" I love thee, Nature, as a child 



Loves the dear mother that beguil'd 



Its many tedious hours of pain, 



And soothed it into health again. 



" I'll never, Nature, bid farewell 

 To thee : thou in my brain shalt dwell 

 'Till mind shall have outgrown its clay, 

 And left its garment to decay."— J. W. D. 



D 



