'Fair and Warmer* 



first robin makes no effort to announce 

 to you his arrival. He has probably 

 been somewhere round-about for sev- 

 eral days before you see him. In the 

 vicinity of our great cold-storage reser- 

 voir, Lake Michigan, he usually comes 

 too soon for his own comfort. He 

 braves the searching winds; and al- 

 though the bare ground as yet yields 

 up no food he stands firmly by his 

 enterprise. 



It has now been many weeks since 

 those bulbs were buried where last 

 summer's flowers had bloomed. Since 

 then there has been little time to think 

 of them. Matters of more consequence, 

 from conventional standpoints, have 

 claimed attention. It is only during 

 idle hours that one may be permitted 

 to deal with such comparatively trivial 

 things as tulips. But one tires of this 

 everlasting wrestling with the prob- 

 lems of how dollars and reputations 

 among men may best be coined. Some 

 of those who may have followed me 

 [213] 



