i66 ROUND ABOUT CHICAGO 



board fence, for it is guiltless of opening at the 

 front, to the neatly kept house inside. Then 

 the kindly German woman who presides over all, 

 having proudly shown us the fussy little garden 

 with its rustic bridge and its grape arbor, and 

 having sat the big little girl in the big swing, 

 escorted us to the well. And we listened to the 

 parrot talking German! 



We were so glad this house was here, and 

 we were so glad there were no more! 



Our familiar unspoiled spot at South Shore 

 seemed better than any other to us, for we knew 

 it best, in all its changing phases, and here alone 

 have the children followed the march of the 

 seasons through. 



In earliest spring, when the first warm sun 

 came, even while the wind was still keen from 

 the cold blue lake, the brave pussy willows 

 showed their snowy cotton tufts, and the fur- 

 coated mullen leaves stuck their tips through the 

 ground, while flocks of gray j uncos spread their 

 white tail feathers as they skimmed over last No- 

 vember's leaves, and blue birds, like animated bits 

 detached from the sky, flitted and sang among 

 the leafless branches of the oaks amid a chorus 

 of other birds that we know not, while in the low 

 places the awakening frogs lent their vocal aid. 



