2 THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 



your waiting through the winter months are you 

 going to be discouraged by a flurry of snow ? 



" All white and still lie stream and hill 



The winter dread and drear! 



., t u<l -.' t "V^he from the skies a bluebird flies, 



'!," V - 4 V^-nd ^- spring is here! " 



To.be sure, it is:bere, if the bluebird is your herald. 



But how much faith in the weather you must have, 

 and how you must long for the spring before the 

 first bluebird brings it to you ! Some sunny March 

 day he drops down out of the blue sky, saying softly, 

 sweetly, " Florida, florida ! " as if calling the flowers ; 

 and then he is gone ! gone for days at a time, 

 while it snows and blows and rains, freezes and 

 thaws, thaws, thaws, until the March mud looks 

 fitter for clams than for flowers. 



So it is with the other first signs. If you want 

 springtime ahead of time, then you must have it in 

 your heart, out of reach of the weather, just as you 

 must grow cucumbers in a hothouse if you want 

 them ahead of time. But there comes a day when 

 cucumbers will grow out of doors ; and there comes 

 a day when the bluebird and the song sparrow and 

 all the other heralds stay, when spring has come 

 whether you have a heart or not. 



What day is that in your out-of-doors, and what 

 sign have you to mark it ? Mr. John Burroughs says 

 his sign is the wake-robin, or trillium. When I was 

 a school-boy it used to be for me the arbutus ; but 



