ACCORDING TO SEASON 



destroy an exquisite organism. Yet so frequent 

 is this form of unintelligence that, when the com- 

 panioned flower-lover discovers a group of what he 

 fears might be considered tempting blossoms, his 

 instinct is to pounce upon them with outstretched 

 arms and protect them from an almost certain on- 

 slaught. 



Thoreau says somewhere that life should be 

 lived " as tenderly and daintily as one would 

 pluck a flower/' so it is possible that in the neigh- 

 borhood of Walden the ruthless flower-gatherers 

 were in the minority, for one would regret to see 

 a life lived as roughly and without semblance of 

 daintiness as in less fortunate localities one can 

 see flowers plucked by the dozen. 



In the woods and along the thicket-bordered 

 fields the vivid cups of the wood-lily gleam from 

 Wood-lily clusters of dull bracken or from feathery, gold- 

 tinged fern-beds. These had never seemed to 

 me so almost blood-like in color as when I caught 

 constant glimpses of them from the train a few 

 days ago. As it had been raining heavily, I 

 thought that the unusual intensity of their hue 

 might be due to a recent bath. But in my wan- 

 derings since then I have encountered equally 

 brilliant specimens, and again conclude that the 

 flowers of this year are unusually deep-hued and 

 vigorous. 



132 



