APRIL. 



T)o you know what Spring is doing? 

 Little children, do you know 

 She has carried off the icicles, 

 And swept away the snow ? 

 The soft air comes to fan her. 

 And the birch hangs out his banner, 

 And the squirrel-cup peeps boldly from his brown leaf 

 bed below. 



IF there is a month in the year when 

 everything wants doing at once, and 

 nothing is willing to wait, I suppose it is 

 this same rainbow month of April. Every 

 individual seed and plant is in a hurry, and 

 you must have a good deal of self-control to 

 escape the breathless contagion ; for with 

 your pets on the jump, how shall you give 

 them slow and quiet attention ? Yet the)^ 

 need it, — need shading and repressing some- 

 times ; for it will not do for them to get 

 ahead of the season. The storm-nursed lit- 



(54) 



