102 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



hymns of the thrushes, hidden deep in the 

 wood. Because of this fostering care the May 

 festivals there were the finest in all the 

 countryside. Oh, dear Master of the Orchard ! 

 now that your many, many Mays have been 

 given back to you, who have gone on with the 

 gentle story of your life of love, and patience, 

 and all sweet brotherliness, and pure delight in 

 all the works of the Good Being for token ; 

 now that all your part in 



" The summer glory of the hills 

 Is that your grave is green," 



the little friends are true to you, and your 

 high requiem is still chanted from your trees ! 



A May garden must be hedged in by lilacs, 

 that we may drink deep of the joy of the season 

 which Dick Steele gives us leave to call the 

 youtherie of the year, and for which Horace 

 Walpole revived the charming folk-name lilac- 

 tive. There are many things of which we can 

 never have enough, and one of them is the 

 lilac. Lilag, the Persians call it, and it is 

 Oriental to the last tip of the tossing plumes 

 of purple and white, and blue, and rose-colour, 

 all blended in that lovely colour for which we 



