THE MAGIC OF THE SEASONS 



139 



a great struggle for supremacy between one season and another. 

 Never, perhaps, in the history of the world have men and women 

 so looked forward to Spring and Summer as during the year in 

 which I write. They had passed through the severest Winter 

 for twenty-five years, and, if my information is correct, the 

 latest Spring for five hundred years. Be that as it may, the 

 Spring of 1917 was a long time coming, for, up to mid- April, 

 we experienced stern Winter, with its sweeping snowstorms 

 battling with the sunlight, and few among us could tell when the 

 conflict would cease. Some almost doubted if Spring would 

 come again, but the devoted Nature-lover never lost heart, even 

 if May Day had almost arrived before better weather was experi- 

 enced, and then came Summer ! 



FIG. 64. SHEEP AND)LAMBS. 



The countryside was, in the first four months of 1917, in a 

 bedraggled condition, owing to the heavy falls of snow, together 

 with sleet, frost, and wind. In the first week of April I rambled 

 day after day in search of bird migrants due from oversea, but 

 there was no response. How could one expect otherwise with 

 the countryside as bleak and bare as on a February morning ? 

 But, to those who had not lost faith, the transformation came, 

 and, with the clothing of the earth, the overdue bird visitors 

 returned, for by then the insect legions were abroad, and it was 

 safe for these feathered voyagers to come back to their native 

 land. A fortnight of glorious Summer weather early in May 



