APRIL SHOWERS 



nightfall the wind ceased, ashamed 

 perhaps of its prolonged violence, and we 

 felt the soft presence of April all about. 

 Someone had suddenly wrapped the world 

 in a protecting mantle of perfumed 

 dreams. 



Hitherto it had been struggling to real- 

 ize spring, succeeding here and there in- 

 deed, but always against cold disfavor and 

 sullen opposition. Now, in a breath al- 

 most, joys and relaxation had come to all 

 out-door creatures, and the air itself was 

 suffused with tears of relief that brimmed 

 over and made little laughing patterings 

 on bare twigs and brown grass. Till then 

 we had had no green of spring. The 

 woodland world had been pink, and am- 

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