MINSTREL WEATHER *$ CHAPTER 

 IV. THE APRIL MOMENT < 



1URVIVOR of so much that 

 her fear is gone, triumphant 

 April answers the dark 

 powers as if they could never 

 speak again. Spring after 

 spring she stands among flying petals and 

 smiles at the last bitter winds. She will 

 not grant that the green earth was ever 

 vanquished, fiercely alive as now it is. 

 Scornfully the new silver bloom on the 

 clover sheds the relentless rain. Un- 

 daunted, reaffirming, she summons all 

 beauty of color, music, and fragrance be- 

 neath her banners, with a vitality so pro- 

 Jound and impregnable that more than 



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