THE COMING OF SPRING 5 



look for Spring. That is to say, I did the looking 

 and Nell, being a pony, the walking, a comfortably 

 cooperative arrangement, for like many prospectors 

 we went far afield for what we might have found 

 close at hand. But when the Spring thirst for 

 outdoors comes upon one, the hunting cools the 

 fever of longing nearly as much as the finding. 



Up and out of the house! Away from houses! 

 Away from the pleasantness of the planted and 

 sheltered garden things that do not indicate the 

 pulsings of wild nature! Nell snorted and pranced 

 with joy, experiencing a sort of horse second - 

 childhood as the keen breeze scattered tiny tufts 

 of her loosened winter coat to feather wayside 

 briars and offer early birds rare bargains in all- 

 wool nest lining. Myrtle warblers flitted along 

 the waysides mingling the remains of winter worn 

 Bay and Poison Ivy berries with fresh ants in a 

 sort of Spring salad. Fox sparrows and white- 

 throats sent up an occasional retrospective melody 

 from pastures where the snow had held the seeded 

 grasses against the wind's caprices, and quail ran 

 noiselessly by through the undergrowth or told 

 their names boldly from a fence rail. It was still 

 two hours before noon when we found ourselves 

 over the hills and well within Time o' Year's 



