26 THE RING OF NATURE 



FEBRUARY 



THE SQUIREEL 



THIS is the first magic day of spring. The 

 rays of the sun, even when they are 

 not direct, strike through the clothes as though 

 they were not there, and thrill us with a new 

 message. When you sit before the hottest fire, 

 you do not feel warm through the clothes all at 

 once, nor for a few moments. Nor if you wait for 

 hours, or for ever, will you get any of the subtle 

 ichor of benefit with which the sunshine of a spring 

 day floods you in a moment. We have to fall 

 back on a molecular theory of heat to get a 

 conception of the fact. It is as though the fire 

 pelted us with large pebbles, while the sun had 

 a fire of sand finer than the meshes of any 

 clothing. 



Rooks and starlings are drawing across the field 

 the line of their search that surely nothing can 

 escape. The light sits on their backs, and glances 

 from shoulder to shoulder as they walk. It brings 

 up the sheen of colour, the purples and the greens 



