78 Outlook to Nature 



rivers and plains and mountains the names 

 of which I sought so much in my old geog- 

 raphy days. 



Soft green things push up out of the earth, 

 growing by some sweet alchemy that I cannot 

 understand but that I can feel. Green leaves 

 expand to the sun ; buds burst into flowers ; 

 flowers change to fruits ; the pods burst, and 

 berries wither and fall ; the seeds drop and are 

 lost, yet I know that nature the gardener 

 will recover them in due season. 



Strange plants that I did not want are grow- 

 ing here and there, and now I find that they 

 are as good as the rest, for they spring from 

 the same earth yet are unlike all others, they 

 struggle for place and light, and they too will 

 have their day and will die away and in some 

 mysterious process will come again. Insects 

 crawl here and there, coming from strange crev- 

 ices and all of them intent. Earthworms heave 

 their burrows. All these, too, pass on and die 

 and will come again. A bird darts in and cap- 

 tures a flying insect ; a dog trots across the 

 farther end of the plot ; a cat is hidden under 



