Earth seems a garden in its loveliest dress/' 



COWPER. 



MAY 



TT is king-cup time king-cup time in the meadow ! The 

 -* great burly blossoms of gold are gleaming in the 

 meadows and beside the stream. Here the spell of Spring 

 is over all ; fragile " lady's smocks " have opened their dainty 

 pale violet crosses. The promise of Summer's wealth comes 

 suddenly; it is seen in the clumps of meadow-sweet foliage 

 fantastically showing the undersilver of each leaf, upturned 

 momentarily by the wind; tussocks of figwort and ivory- 

 flowered comfrey ; loftily growing grasses ; but the king- 

 cup is dominant. Shakespeare's " winking marybuds," and 

 after that the " lady's smock, all silver white," are the two 

 flowers of to-day, and perhaps two of the loveliest that 

 bloom betwixt the first rainbow of Spring until Autumn's 

 last leaf. 



Over in the grove of cherry trees weighed down with 

 white blossom, the blackbird sings a liquid melody ; singing, 

 perhaps, because the wealth of blossom on the near boughs 

 promise many a luscious meal, when the silver stars have 

 undergone their wonderful changes, till ended at last in the 

 fruit hanging like rubies suspended from delicate threads. A 

 breath of the lilac borne on the breeze from some near garden 

 brings Walt Whitman's lines, "When lilacs bloomed," to 

 memory 



" Ever returning Spring . . . lilac blooming perennial . . . 

 The lilac -bush tall -growing, with heart-shaped leaves of 

 rich green, 



za8 



