MARCH. 45 



be accidental and transient. How fatal it would be, 

 in that case, if the young did not inherit their an- 

 cestors' habits ! 



THE MONTH OF DAFFODILS. 



March 20. Real spring, that is to say the spring 

 which turns a smiling face towards summer, began in 

 the very middle of March in 1902. In one small 

 garden, within the space of ten minutes, the first 

 white butterfly, the first queen wasp, and the first big 

 bumblebee, appeared together on the morning of the 

 1 6th, and from that day one might almost have 

 planted a yard measure in the ground by the side of 

 the Crown Imperials, and marked off each day's 

 advance towards summer in inches of the lilies' 

 growth. The third week of March is early, of course, 

 to think of summer. On any morning we might 

 awake to find that spring, cowering before a north-east 

 blizzard, has turned her chilled face back towards 

 winter again. The roses had suffered once already, 

 and the shrivelled black buds still showed how return- 

 ing frost caught them just as they were unfolding 

 their tender leaves. So, if we " dance with daffodils," 

 as the poet bids us, one day, we may as alliteratively 

 " limp " with them as " Lent lilies " the next ; for 

 the daffodil is the flower of a month which is some- 

 times lamb and sometimes lion, but seldom either 

 for long. 



