May and Early June 



of the " unassuming commonplace," sings, 

 with poetic inconsistency : 



" 111 befall the yellow flowers, 

 Children of the flaring hours ! " 



and with little appreciation of the ill 

 which would befall every sunlight-loving 

 eye were his rash wish granted. For 

 who would forego the prodigal gold of 

 the little cinquefoil, which is carpeting 

 every meadow and roadside with those 

 divided leaves which delude so many into 

 the belief that it is a yellow- flowered wild 

 strawberry ? Neither could we spare the 

 glistening blossoms of the common wood- 

 sorrel, whose clover-like leaflets alone 

 serve, with the majority of passers-by, to 

 distinguish it from the cinquefoil. Even 

 the tall, brittle - stemmed, four - petalled 

 celandine, guardian of the village way- 

 side, we would hardly care to be with- 

 out. Although, perhaps, some of us 

 would cling to it chiefly because we be- 

 lieved it to be identical with the far- 

 36 



