4 UNDER THE TREES. 



in vain when skies are softer and the green roof 

 has been stretched over the woodland ways. In 

 fact, one can hardly lay claim to any intimacy with 

 Nature until he loves her best when she discards 

 her royalty, and, like Cinderella, clad only in the 

 cast-off garments of sunnier days, she crouches be 

 fore the ashes of the faded year. The test of 

 friendship is its fidelity when every charm of for 

 tune and environment has been swept away, and 

 the bare, undraped character alone remains ; if love 

 still holds steadfast, and the joy of companionship 

 survives in such an hour, the fellowship becomes a 

 beautiful prophecy of immortality. To all profes 

 sions of love Nature applies this infallible test with 

 a kind of divine impartiality. With the first note 

 of the bluebird, under the brief flush of an April 

 sky, her alluring invitation goes forth to the world ; 

 day by day she deepens the blue of her summer 

 skies and fills them with those buoyant clouds that 

 float like dreams across the vision of the waking 

 day ; night after night she touches the stars with a 

 softer radiance, and breathes upon her roses so that 

 they are eager for the dawn, that they may lay 

 their hearts open to her gaze ; the forests take on 

 more and more the lavish mood of the summer, 

 until they have buried their great trunks in per 

 petual shade. The splendid pageant moves on, 

 gathering its votaries as it passes from one marvel 

 ous change to another ; and yet the Mistress of the 

 Revels is nowhere visible. The crowds press from 



