Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



the light. So, in this land of long, long winter 

 night, where Nature stints her joys for six hard 

 months, then owns her debt and pays it all at 

 once, the spring is glorious compensation for 

 the past. Six months' arrears of joy are paid 

 in one vast lavish outpour. And latest May 

 is made the date of payment. Then spring, 

 great, gorgeous, sixfold spring, holds carnival 

 on every ridge. 



Even the sullen Gunder Peak, that pierces 

 the north end of the ridge, unsombres just a 

 whit. The upland beams with all the flowers 

 it might have grown in six lost months ; yet we see 

 only one. Here by our feet, and farther on, 

 and right and left and onward far away, in 

 great, broad acre beds, the purple lupine bloom- 

 ing. Irregular, broken, straggling patches near, 

 but broader, denser, farther on ; till on the dis- 

 tant slopes they lie, long, devious belts, like 

 purple clouds at rest. 



But late May though it be, the wind is cold ; 

 the pools tell yet of frost at night. The White 

 Wind blows. Broad clouds come up, and down 

 comes driving snow, over the peaks, over the 

 upland, and over the upland flowers. Hoary, 



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