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spring's promise 



/(KJ 



ROWN the year with lilies; clothe the fields with 



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poppies; deck the bower with roses; all of this will 

 I . nature help us to do, but how shall we know that 



'glad* spring has come without a crocus or a daffydowndilly 

 to point the daring way, or to thaw rough winter into a soft 

 and vernal rebirth? And what so bold as the snow-drop, 

 the "Herald of fair Flora's train" or more hopeful than 



'The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the mould, 

 Naked, shivering with his cup of gold." - -- — -*^»-^ 



What could be more full of the glowing promise of 

 spring than those bold coquettes the ruddy tulip and her 

 white and saffron sisters. Now may we all find an intimate 

 who will watch and ward keep over us such as Lamb so 

 affectionately claimed in Coleridge, who, he says, "Tends 

 me as a gardener 'tends his young tulip . . . and a tulip 

 of all flowers loves to be admired most. " Bold coquettes 

 they are and always have been, these tulips, and ever com- 

 manding attention to their beauty. Perhaps this explains 



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