A Prophesying Day 273 



life, that does not wait for months and days, 

 but manifests where and when it will, rebuking 

 our shallow and tenuous faith with witnesses to 

 its gentle energies, that it is which lifts above 

 the frosts, the snow, the ice, the hardened earth- 

 surface of winter, the assurance of summer. It 

 is truly summer that is our keynote of the year, 

 and not winter. There are indeed few days of 

 the cold season s calendar when we cannot hear 

 that note in the pines and spruces and hemlocks, 

 but chiefly in the white pines ; when we cannot 

 listen to its echo in the prattle of the brook. 

 While in our ardent summer there are few days 

 in many years that bring the memory of frost to 

 our consciousness, there are many days in winter 

 which open all the year to our entry. When we 

 wander in the fields and see the brooklime fresh 

 and green, and ready for the spring ; when on a 

 forest bank we note the arbutus buds prepared 

 for the first opportunity of spring bloom ; when 

 we note the preparation of the alder, the sweet 

 fern, the blueberry, the azalea, the mountain laurel 

 and so many other shrubs ; when we observe the 

 sand violet s foot leaves and the most beautiful 

 St. John s wort, the evening primrose, the robin s 

 plantain, the saxifrage, the golden-rods, we can 

 but feel that the perpetual truth is summer, just 

 as the perpetual truth is life. 



