WHAT an indescribable tenderness charac- 

 terizes this beautiful April day! Light 

 and shade are dreamily following each other over 

 green hillsides, while soft white clouds drift about 

 in azure depths. Summer trees are robed in deli- 

 cate young leaves or attired in feathery, flower- 

 like leaf-heralds. Spruces are hung with embryo 

 cones tiny pink buds in which a blush rose might 

 exult and tips of lightest, softest hue relieve the 

 sombreness of the dark evergreen boughs. Horse- 

 chestnut leaves have emerged from their varnished 

 casings and cast aside the fleecy coverings in which 

 the baby buds were so carefully enveloped. With- 

 out any leafy forewarning, the forsythias like 

 clusters of miraculous rods have burst into a 

 wealth of yellow blossoms; and scarlet buds are 

 opening among the pyrus japonica leaves, while 



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