^ 



\ 



^be fragrant 1Rote Booft 



them all by name. Such a list as it will be and how better 

 to begin than in the olden way, / |V 



"The primrose placing first, because that in the spring \ X 

 It is the first appears, then only flourishing. " 



Sweet primrose, come and gone so soon. Is it this short- 

 Hved beauty that has so often condemned so dainty a flower 

 to be sung as irresponsible. Preaching Laertes, who perhaps 

 "himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and recks not 

 his own rede" was doubtless neither better nor worse in this 

 than blundering Peter Bell, so tmappreciative and obUvious 

 to all the subtlety of spring that, \ \ ( \ 



\ f "A primrose by the river's brim 



A yellow primrose was to him 

 And it was nothing more. " 



What a pity so sordid, prosy and blunt a realist cannot 

 sit at the feet of Puck's companions and slough off such a 

 blindness! Dares a Peter Bell of Hiram Clodd make mid- 

 night tryst with a woodland fay? Trust them to find a way 

 to open dull human eyes, and to great lengths have they gone 

 to enlighten us ! What things we always learn, what sights 

 we see, what songs we shall hear when we sit at the feet of the 

 fairies, out of bounds, where "the field hath eyen and the 

 wood hath ears." \ \\ \ yj\ 



But a sound of merry-making comes over the hedge. I 

 hear a dog bark and the cheery laugh of young girls. April, 

 which a short hour ago was "coming up the hill, " is past and 



/ 



\l 



