THE SQUIRREL 27 



that have been absent for months, and now vividly 

 rebuke any one who should say that rooks and 

 starlings are black. The winter black of tree trunks 

 is also a thing of the past, for now even the most 

 sober of them is bronze or silver or golden with 

 the sap of life shining through the bark. Willows 

 and the cornel are the brightest, as they were the 

 only ones to show colour in the dark days of 

 December and January ; next to them come the 

 poplars, which are first cousins to the willows. 

 The white poplar shines like burnished silver in 

 all its branches, and its twigs are swelling intb 

 the great red catkins that make us wonder in a 

 few weeks' time where the tree has been hiding 

 itself all the summer and winter. The elms, too, 

 are very visibly burgeoning into their crimson 

 glory of blossom. 



The flowers in the wood seem to know that it 

 will be useless to try and grow when there is a 

 canopy of leaves overhead. Violet and blue-bell, 

 daffodil, primrose, lily of the valley, anemone, must 

 all have done blossoming before the beeches are 

 in leaf, and they are visibly preparing for it. Even 

 they have no chance where the dog's mercury has 

 established itself. It makes a continuous carpet 

 of leaves, which you can see shake in their tops 

 when mouse or adder moves through the stalks. 

 The dog's mercury is blossoming amain, hanging 

 out its green catkins, from which every footstep 

 sends out puffs of pollen. The sun falling in 

 patches through the branches flecks their deep green 



