126 Twelve Months With 



rendering up their temporal, earthly forms, that 

 the divine purpose in them may be fulfilled. 

 Verily, everywhere in the midst of life there is 

 death. 



As we observe the course of Nature through the 

 spring and summer months, with the regular and 

 immutable order of birth, growth and consumma- 

 tion, we are impressed with the indomitable per- 

 sistence of this all-pervading and all-powerful 

 supreme purpose in all living things. Truly, 

 "through the ages one increasing purpose runs." 

 While, therefore, the harvest and the increase 

 mean decay and death, they also mean hope's glo- 

 rious fulfillment and life's great purposes realized. 



In August the birds and, indeed, all things in 

 Nature seem weary and spent with the toil and 

 travail of life. The birds drop their feathers or 

 change their brilliant vernal plumage for a more 

 sombre dress, the flowers fade, the foliage withers, 

 and ripened fruits and dry seeds replace the bright 

 blooms of summer. 



There is something very beautiful about the 

 devotion of the birds to the yearly task which 

 Nature has set for them. For them, indeed, pro- 

 creation does not mean death and extinction, as 

 it does for some of the insects and lower forms 

 of animal life, but it means arduous toil each 

 summer through, which no one but the bird stu- 

 dent or naturalist really understands. With few 

 exceptions, the mating begins immediately upon 

 the birds' arrival from the south in the spring- 



