AMONG THE WILD-FLOWEKS 15 



arriving swallows twitter above the woods; the 

 first chewink rustles the dry leaves; the north- 

 ward bound thrushes, the hermit and the gray- 

 cheeked, flit here and there before you. The 

 robin, the sparrow, and the bluebird are building 

 their first nests, and the first shad are making 

 their way slowly up the Hudson. Indeed, the 

 season is fairly under way when the trailing 

 arbutus comes. Now look out for troops of 

 boys and girls going to the woods to gather it! 

 and let them look out that in their greed they 

 do not exterminate it. Within reach of our 

 large towns the choicer spring wild-flowers are 

 hunted mercilessly. Every fresh party from 

 town raids them as if bent upon their destruc- 

 tion. One day, about ten miles from one of 

 our Hudson River cities, there got into the 

 train six young women loaded down with vast 

 sheaves and bundles of trailing arbutus. Each 

 one of them had enough for forty. They had 

 apparently made a clean sweep of the woods. 

 It was a pretty sight, — the pink and white of 

 the girls and the pink and white of the flowers ! 

 and the car too was suddenly filled with per- 

 fume, — the breathj of spring loaded the air, 

 but I thought it a pity to ravish the woods in 

 that way. The next party was probably equally 

 greedy, and because a handful was desirable, 

 thought an armful proportionately so; till, by 

 and by, the flower will be driven from those 

 woods. 



Another flower that one makes special excur- 

 sions for is the pond lily. The pond lily is a 



