A SPRING RELISH 



One is on the alert ; there are hints and 

 suggestions on every hand. Something 

 has just passed, or stirred, or called, or 

 breathed, in the open air or in the ground 

 about, that we would fain know more of. 

 May is sweet, but April is pungent. There 

 is frost enough in it to make it sharp, and 

 heat enough in it to make it quick. 



In my walks in April, I am on the look- 

 out for watercresses. It is a plant that has 

 the pungent April flavor. In many parts 

 of the country the watercress seems to have 

 become completely naturalized, and is es- 

 sentially a wild plant. I found it one day 

 in a springy place, on the top of a high, 

 wooded mountain, far from human habita- 

 tion. We gathered it and ate it with our 

 sandwiches. Where the walker cannot find 

 this salad, a good substitute may be had 

 in our native spring cress, which is also in 

 perfection in April. Crossing a wooded hill 

 in the regions of the Catskills on the 1 5th 

 of the month, I found a purple variety of 

 the plant, on the margin of a spring that 

 issued from beneath a ledge of rocks, just 

 ready to bloom. I gathered the little white 

 tubers, that are clustered like miniature 

 potatoes at the root, and ate them, and 



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