WINTER'S ROSETTES 



December i^th 



E are going to have an early spring," said 

 a rural philosopher to me one late Feb- 

 ruary day, pointing, as proof of his asser- 

 tion, to the numerous clusters of lush 

 green leaves disclosed everywhere in his 

 garden upon the melting of the snows. 

 " The weeds are starting already," he says, pulling up a 

 close clump of peppergrass leaves. And yonder is a 

 flat starry tuft of sorrel leaves as green as April grass, 

 and near by a hundred-pointed starry rosette of the 

 evening primrose hugging the frozen ground all proofs 

 of an "early spring." Yes, the spring is in the hearts 

 of all of them, and has been abiding there for several 

 months. How few of them ever get the credit for 

 the hope and faith of which they are the perennial elo- 

 quent symbols ! The snow covers thousands of them. 

 Not all our evergreens are accounted for in our bot- 



