SOUTH RAIN 



Over on the sandy southern slope there 

 might be violets, too. Later in the year 

 the whole field will be blue with them and 

 all about are their rosettes of sagittate 

 leaves, which the cold has had to hold 

 sternly in check to keep them from grow- 

 ing the winter through. Indeed, I do not 

 believe it has fully succeeded. It has been 

 a mild season, and I think the violets 

 have taken the opportunity during warm 

 spells of several days' duration to surrep- 

 titiously put forth another leaf or so in 

 the very center of that rosette. If so, 

 they might well have followed this cour- 

 age with the further audacity of buds, and 

 buds, indeed, they had but not one of them 

 was open far enough to show even a faint 

 hint of the blue that I was seeking. 



It was hardly to be expected of the 

 violets. They are so sturdy and full of 

 simple, homely, common sense that it is 

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