HARBINGERS OF SPRING. 



SYMBOLS OF THE SEASON WHICH MAY BE SEEN IN 

 WOODS AND FIELDS. 



When the month hand on the dial plate of the year 

 points to March who, in the latitude of Indiana, is not 

 daily expecting spring? What human being is not 

 made glad when it finally arrives ? Four months of 

 biting winds and hoar frosts; months in which the 

 skies are almost daily overcast with dull dreary clouds ; 

 months of alternate rains and sleets and snows, are 

 enough to cause an intense longing for change in the 

 human mind and to bring to it a glow of happiness 

 when the first warm breezes blow up from the gulf 

 and man can say with reason " Spring has come 

 again." Then the dormant energies within us spring 

 into new life. The doors and windows of our houses 

 are thrown open wide. Smiles are seen on faces to 

 which for the most part they are strangers. Wee tots 

 of children run unattended up and down the streets 

 and laugh and shout with joy. Matrons forget or 

 cast aside set social rules and stop and chat in one 

 another's dooryards. Fancied class distinctions, based 

 on wealth or " blue blood," are forgotten and, for the 

 time being, the members of the human family are 

 more akin than at any other season of the year. All 

 are enjoying a common blessing, for spring comes 



(9) 



