EARLIEST BUTTERFLIES 



or shy herb sends perfumed invitation out 

 on the messenger winds. 



Yet I find April butterflies most partial 

 to such sunny spots as the ancient corn- 

 field, where pines and scrub oaks will give 

 no hint of bloom for weeks to come, and 

 only dry lichens seem to flourish on the 

 twig and chip-encumbered earth. Here 

 the dainty cladonias thrive, the brown- 

 fruited lifting tiny cups to the sun, while 

 the scarlet-crested help this and the fringed 

 variety to make crisp, tiny, fairy gardens 

 that w r ill show you great beauty if you will 

 put your nose to the earth as the butterfly 

 does in looking at them. 



Perhaps these earliest spring butterflies 

 sip from brown cups or draw from frost- 

 moistened scarlet crests some potent elixir 

 which warms the cockles of their wee 

 hearts during the frigid nights of our 

 Massachusetts Aprils. I hope so. I never 

 147 



