76 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



XIV. 



THE wild flowers have been slow in show 

 ing themselves, having doubtless learned 

 caution from past experience, but the week 

 just gone, with its many hours of warm 

 sunshine, followed by soft April showers, 

 has brought great changes. Within two or 

 three days I have found, besides the hepat- 

 ica, the first comer, the cinque-foil, the 

 dandelion, the common duckweed, shep 

 herd s purse (is the size of the seed vessels 

 of this a true indication of the small wants 

 or only of the small attainments of the 

 pastoral part of the community ?) the dog s- 

 tooth violet in quantity, the bloodroot, the 

 lovely, modest little quaker lady or inno 

 cence, and the purple trillium, which has not 

 very often happened in my path in the 

 times that are gone. Nothing could be 

 more dainty than the houstonia the little 

 quaker lady. And it is very trustful and 

 confiding withal, and will bloom just as 

 courageously and perseveringly in a saucer 

 at your window if you take up a clump of 



