12 THE COMING OF SPRING 



pasture on the opposite side, he began to scramble 

 through the underbrush toward the woods. Cat- 

 brier again, coils and ropes of it, surely the 

 Magician was the inventor of barbed wire and 

 protected much of his property with it before man 

 wore tearable clothes! Catbrier helps to keep the 

 balance even now in woodland economy. The 

 rabbit may run under where the fox meets a 

 barrier, the ruffed grouse can slip safely to shelter, 

 while the hawk, that dropped too boldly, is 

 arguing with the hooked thorns that pluck tufts 

 of his feathers to rags, or sometimes hold him 

 altogether a prisoner, until his lifeless wings flap 

 to and fro in the wind like a scarecrow. 



Once free of wayside underbrush we entered 

 a region of Hemlocks, Oaks mingled with other 

 forest trees, and rich leaf -mould, ankle deep, and 

 crusted by the unchanged leaves of last year's 

 shedding, made an elastic footing. Straightway 

 we were greeted by a single cluster of white 

 Hepaticas. 



"Snow Flowers, I call these," said Time o' 

 Year, gaining more precise speech. "I 've often 

 found them, when the sun 's come out hot the 

 end of March, in little thawed places in front of 

 rocks when the snow was lying thick on the 



