WOODLAND PATHS 



a bouquet of perfume to you that you may 

 know she is by. The bayberry holds blue 

 candles to the wind all winter, and the in- 

 cense of them carries far. But the sweet 

 gale is too modest and shy for such things. 

 She just sits quiet and unobserved, and 

 thinks holy thoughts, and because she does 

 so it seems as if all the warmth and kind- 

 ness of April sun and April showers 

 touched her first. 



The catkins of the sweet fern were still 

 hard and varnished, and had not cracked 

 a smile this morning after the night of 

 April showers. Not a candle of the bay- 

 berry had melted or shown flame in all 

 this softness and warmth, yet there stood 

 the gentle sweet gale all aflame with soft 

 amber and pale gold, a veritable burning 

 bush of beauty. There is no perfume from 

 these blossoms, so gently shy and self- 

 contained is the plant. Both the bayberry 

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