Fragrance and Melody i o i 



view, in the company of the grass flowers to which 

 they are entitled. Every day some new fern 

 uncurls, and this delightful woodland race, with 

 its many families, makes the forests a constant 

 surprise. Some on the sternest heights, where 

 water is scarce, exploit their graceful beauty, as if, 

 said Thoreau, Nature designed in them to show 

 how wonderful a mere leaf might be; some in 

 the darkest marshes, some on the sunny hills, 

 everywhere lavish in varied grace and elegance, 

 the finest bred of all vegetable races. 



Such are the gifts of Nature in this wondrous 

 season. Who does not receive and love them is 

 the poorer for his failure. They are an ines 

 timable part of the training of the soul, the 

 essential, the only, purpose and meaning of the 

 life of earth. 



