A SPRING HOLIDAY 



The elms along the railway were not yet in leaf, 

 but looked as though wreathed in a coppery mist 

 — an effect due to the minute blossoms which ap- 

 pear before the leaves put out. The sugar-maples Blossom- 

 were bursting into leaf and flower simultaneously. Mg ree$ 

 Some weeks ago the birches hung out their yellow 

 catkins, and now their branches were blurred with 

 delicate foliage. This was especially noticeable 

 with the white birches, clustering erect and slim 

 on the mountain-sides. 



The oaks, still hung with the leathery leaves of Oak-leaves 

 last year, the hickories, chestnuts, and, indeed, 

 most of the trees we could identify, showed few 

 signs of coming summer. But their dull grays 

 and browns blended with the misty greens, reds, 

 and yellows of maple, birch, and willow, forming 

 a landscape full of tender beauty. 



We passed fields velvety with the "unnamed 

 green " of new-sprung winter rye ; then skirted 

 the base of a hill-side red with upturned soil, 

 whose fresh, earthy scent seemed almost to reach 

 us through the smeared window-panes. We 

 watched, touched by envy born of inexperience, 

 the farmer guiding his plough in the pale sunlight 

 with the skill that makes the hardest work look 

 easy. Across another fresh-ploughed field strode The sower 

 a sower, strong and sinewy, with swinging, easy 

 motion ; and we wondered if the brown, solitary 



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