UNDER THE APPLE BOUGHS. 9 



the secret was out : the apple trees were in bloom ! 

 Three days later, and the miracle so long in prepa 

 ration was accomplished ; the slowly rising tide 

 of life had broken into a foam of blossoms and 

 buried the world in a billowy sea. There will come 

 days of greater splendor than this, days of deeper 

 foliage, of waving grain and ripening fruit, but no 

 later day will eclipse this vision of paradise which 

 lies outspread from my window ; life touches to-day 

 the zenith of its earliest and freshest bloom ; to 

 morrow the blossoms will begin to sift down from 

 the snowy branches, and the great movement of 

 summer will advance again ; but for one brief day 

 the year pauses and waits, reluctant to break the 

 spell of this perfect hour, to mar by the stir of a 

 single leaf the stainless loveliness of this revelation 

 of nature s unwasted youth. 



I do not care to look through these great masses 

 of bloom ; it is enough simply to live in an hour 

 which brings such an overflow of beauty from the 

 ancient fountains ; but nature herself lures one to 

 deeper thoughts, and, through the vision which 

 spreads like a mirage over the landscape, hints at 

 some hidden loveliness at the root of this riotous 

 blossoming, some diviner vision for the eye of the 

 spirit alone. &quot; Look,&quot; she seems to say, as I stand 

 and gaze with unappeased hunger of soul, &quot; this 

 is my holiday. In the coming weeks I have a whole 

 race to feed, and over the length of the world men 

 are imploring my help. They do their little share 



