MINSTREL WEATHER ^ CHAPTER 

 V. THE CREST OF SPRING $ $ 



ILICKERING soft leaves 



spangled with sunlit rain 

 give May a robe diamond- 

 sown, as lighted spray may 

 weave for the sea. Skim- 

 ming wings catch sunrise colors. The 

 grass blade is borne down by the exquisite 

 burden of one translucent pearl. This is 

 the luminous youth of the year, and its 

 splendor lies deeper than the glitter of 

 dew-and-rain jewels, for it is visible in the 

 forbidding strongholds of hemlock and 

 pine, where a sunless world still shines with 

 May. In one month only Nature lights 

 her unquenchable lamp. Look down upon 

 the orchard from a hill: the young leaves 

 are lanterns of sheer green silk, not the 



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