CHAPTER II 



THE SPRING RUNNING 



THIS title is Kipling's ; the observations that 

 follow are mine ; but the real spring run- 

 ning is yours and mine and Kipling's and 

 Mowgli the wolf-child's, whose running Kipling has 

 told us about. Indeed, every child of the earth has 

 felt it, has had the running every living thing of 

 the land and the sea. 



Everything feels it ; everything is restless, every- 

 thing is moving. The renter changes houses; the 

 city dweller goes " down to the shore " or up to the 

 mountains to open his summer cottage; the farmer 

 starts to break up the land for planting; the school- 

 children begin to squirm in their seats and long to 

 fly out of the windows ; and " Where are you going 

 this summer? " is on every one's lips. 



They have all caught the spring running, the 

 only infection I know that you can catch from April 

 skies. The very sun has caught it, too, and is length- 

 ening out his course, as if he hated to stop and go 

 to bed at night. And the birds, that are supposed 

 to go to bed most promptly, they sleep, says the 

 good old poet Chaucer, with open eye, these April 

 nights, so bad is their case of spring running, 



" So priketh hem Nature in hir corages." l 

 1 So nature pricks (stirs) them in their hearts. 



