Across Lots is Best 263 



to each other, and now and again we hear the 

 tap of a gray woodpecker on a tree where there 

 are grubs. All the winter, if the sportsmen would 

 let them alone, these little winged blessings are 

 keeping down the insect pests. We should have 

 no fears for our elms or maples if the birds were 

 given a fair chance. 



Other things come to one s knowledge ; among 

 the rest that even the green life of summer is not 

 altogether obliterated in the season of frost and 

 snow. Here is a marsh where the water is un 

 fettered and the grass is of as rich a green as the 

 finest city lawn wears in June ; where white and 

 red clover are in leaf untouched by frost, and the 

 marsh marigold and buttercup leaves are as fresh 

 as the grass, and one almost expects to see a 

 blossom of something or other, but of course 

 that is too much even to fancy. In such a marsh 

 one may take out a bit of turf or a plant or two 

 with his fingers, and feel no colder than in sum 

 mer. Of course dozens of plants maintain their 

 foot-leaves throughout the winter, such as the St. 

 John s wort, the evening primrose, the wild straw 

 berry and some of the asters and golden-rods. 

 But the warm spring makes a counterfeit of sum 

 mer in its little sphere, telling us that life is what 

 persists and death is but a semblance. 



It is strange enough to find some of the deli- 



