THE COMING OF SPRING 105 



And when the day is gone, 



In the blue lake, the sky, o'erreaching far, 

 Is hollowed out, and the moon dips her horn, 



And twinkles many a star. 



Inverted in the tide 



Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows 



throw, 

 And the fair trees look over, side by side, 



And see themselves below. 



Sweet April, many a thought 



Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed; 

 Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought, 



Life's golden fruit is shed. 



THE COMING OF SPRING 



BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN 



IT WAS far in January, and all day the snow was 

 pelting down, but toward evening it grew calm. 

 The sky looked as if it had been swept, and had 

 become more lofty and transparent. The stars 

 looked as if they were quite new, and some of them 

 were amazingly bright and pure. It froze so hard 

 that the snow creaked, and the upper rind of snow 

 might well have grown hard enough to bear the 

 sparrows in the morning dawn. These little birds 

 hopped up and down where the sweeping had 



