MARCH. 65 



their sweetness till they have felt the sunshine 

 of our kindness : and again, they are like the 

 pleasures of our childhood, the earliest and the 

 most beautiful. Now, however, they are to 

 be seen in all their glory blue and white 

 modestly peering through their thick, cluster- 

 ing leaves. The lark is carolling in the blue 

 fields of air ; the blackbird and thrush are again 

 shouting and replying to each other, from the 

 tops of the highest trees. As you pass cot- 

 tages, they have caught the happy infection : 

 there are windows thrown open, and doors 

 standing ajar. The inhabitants are in their 

 gardens, some clearing away rubbish, some 

 turning up the light and fresh-smelling soil 

 amongst the tufts of snow-drops and rows of 

 bright yellow crocuses, which every where 

 abound ; and the children, ten to one, are peep- 

 ing into the first birds'-nest of the season the 

 hedge-sparrow's, with its four sea-green eggs, 

 snugly but unwisely built in the pile of old 

 pea-rods. 



In the fields labourers are plashing and 



trimming the hedges, and in all directions are 



teams at plough. You smell the wholesome, 



and, I may truly say, aromatic soil, as it is 



F 



