A SPRING RELISH. 191 



light of the earlier part of the day, but when the 

 faint, four-o'clock shadows begin to come out and we 

 look through the green vistas, and along the farm 

 lanes toward the west, or out across long stretches of 

 fields above which spring seems fairly hovering, just 

 ready to alight, and note the teams slowly ploughing, 

 the brightened mould-board gleaming in the sun now 

 and then it is at such times we feel its fresh, deli- 

 cate attraction the most. There is no foliage on the 

 trees yet ; only here and there the red bloom of the 

 soft maple, illuminated by the declining sun, shows 

 vividly against the tender green of a slope beyond, or 

 a willow, like a thin veil, stands out against a leafless 

 wood. Here and there a little meadow water-course 

 is golden with marsh marigolds, or some fence border, 

 or rocky streak of neglected pasture land, is thickly 

 starred with the white flowers of the bloodroot. 

 The eye can devour a succession of landscapes at 

 such a time ; there is nothing that sates or entirely 

 fills it, but every spring token stimulates it and makes 

 it more on the alert. 



April, too, is the time to go budding. A swelling 

 bud is food for the fancy, and often food for the eye. 

 Some buds begin to glow as they begin to swell. 

 The bud scales change color and become a delicate 

 rose pink. 1 note this especially in the European 

 maple. The bud scales flush as if the effort to " keep 

 in " brought the blood into their faces. The scales 

 of the willow do not flush, but shine like ebony, and 

 each one presses like a hand upon the catkin that will 

 escape from beneath it. 



