Ill 



THE DINGLE DELL 



"I know each lane, and every alley _ 

 Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, j 

 And every bosky bourn from side to side. " 



Milton's Comus. 



ND such treasures as I find there, all arrayed in their 

 new vernal frocks, all redolent of rich black earth 

 and scattering honeyed perfumes; winking with 

 dainty audacity from behind a waving frond and smiling, 

 quite certain of the worth-whileness of this new life which it is 

 theirs to live. I have little human friends, — little boy chums 

 and girl chums, — who nod silent approval and wag their 

 heads at me with just that mute, blue-eyed and brown-eyed 

 emphasis, and who watch me, — bless them, — with that very 

 same unspoiled asstirance ; as unafraid as they are innocent, 

 as fresh as the anemones at our feet, fresh as the very 

 "breath of hfe" which was once the surging blood of Adonis 

 and which Venus spreads in such profusion all about us. 



And the violets are so like these baby chums. Don't you 

 really believe that the violets suck their thimibs when they 

 go to sleep on their pillows of moss? I am sure that they 



