2 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



beautiful than it was eight or ten days ago, 

 with the sugar maples and the Norway 

 maples in bloom and the tall valley willows 

 in young yellow-green leaf. And now for- 

 sythia is having its turn. How thick it is ! 

 I should not have believed it half so common. 

 Every dooryard is bright with its sunny 

 splendor. "Sunshine bush," it deserves to 

 be called, with no thought of disrespect for 

 Mr. Forsyth, whoever he may have been. 

 I look at the show while it lasts. In a week 

 or two the bushes will all have gone out of 

 commission, so to speak, till the year comes 

 round again. Shrubs are much in the case 

 of men and women ; the amount of atten- 

 tion they receive depends mainly on the 

 dress they happen to have on at the moment. 

 In my next-door neighbor's yard there is a 

 forsythia bush, not exceptionally large or 

 handsome, that gives me as much pleasure 

 as one of those wonderful tulip beds of which 

 the Boston city gardeners make so much 

 account. Are a million tulips, all of one 

 color, crowded tightly together and bordered 

 by a row of other tulips, all of another color, 

 really so much more beautiful than a hun- 



