MARCH. 19 



MARCH. 



"How many a thing that pretty is, delays 

 The wanderer's steps heiieath the sun's soft rays. 

 Gay daffodils bend o'er the watery gleam, 

 Douhling their flickered image in the stream ; 

 The woody nook, where bells of brightest blue 

 Have clothed the ground with heaven's ethereal hue ; 

 The lane's high-sloping bank, where pale primrose, 

 With hundreds of its gentle kindred blows ; 

 And speckled daisies, that on upland bare. 

 Their round eyes opening, scatter gladness there : 

 Man looks on nature with a grateful smile. 

 And thinks of nature's bounteous Lord the while." 



Joanna Baillie. 



When the fruit-trees are covered with flowers, 

 when the peach on the wall puts forth its lilac 

 blossoms, and the apricot's faint blush, and the 

 dark red streaks on the apple-bloom, attract 

 our notice, then we feel fully that spring has 

 arrived. Not yet, however, can we mark these 

 blooms. The sun must have greater power, 

 and the winds be gentler, too, before these 

 tokens of spring shall revisit the garden. 

 Meantime the almond-tree becomes clad with 

 its rose-like flowers, and its sweet fragrance is 

 delightful in the open air. Like the blossoms 

 of many other of our fruit-trees, its scent is far 

 from innocent : a poison liu'ks, not only in the 

 juices and leaves of the plant, but even in its 

 odour ; and, as it is with many of the attract- 

 ive pleasures which open to the spring-time of 

 hfe, a snare lies hid in its dangerous beauty. 



Could we at this season visit the land 

 " beloved for the fathers' sake," the beautiful 

 Palestine, wc should find the almond-blossom 

 covering the trees in every part of the country, 



