1 6 THE COMING OF SPRING 



likelier. The swallows have n't missed their week, 

 the last in April, for coming to my old barn on the 

 hill, not since I can remember. But then they 

 can move themselves and reckon things out a bit 

 while the posies have to sit still until the sun calls 

 them above ground. They jest do as they 're told 

 and don't hustle and worry. That 's why I think 

 they 're so restin' to brood on ; but bless yer, it 

 stands to reason that they must come variable and 

 uncertain, specially at this time o' year." 



"Now, here 's red Wake Robin," he continued, 

 leading me a few yards back to where a low spot 

 made a division between two hills. "On the west 

 and north side of the woods you need n't look for 

 it till May, when we get the big white kind over 

 on the hill - slope above the bridge. Then the 

 Jacks - in - the - Pulpit and the Wild Ginger are 

 hustlin', along with Solomon's Seals, Bellwort, and 

 Blue -flags in the wet places, and the Red -bells 

 have most driven the Saxifrage off the rocky places. 

 Now only the south medder 's showin' life and the 

 north 's as bare as yer hand." 



There was the handsome but evil -scented Wake 

 Robin, surely enough, and more Bloodroot, while 

 the lily -leaved stalks and feathery flowers of the 

 False Solomon's Seal were foreshadowed only by 



