APRIL 



A MERRY month is April, a month ui 

 shadow and shine that chase each otl 

 endlessly over the land, with now a ke 

 backward cut from winter, sore to quit ; nov 

 forward glance of summer, eager to arrive. Not 

 tree but now has leaf, if not flower ; and he wl = 

 should set himself to record the happenings in wo i 

 and hedgerow, and on field and moor, must neei 

 be a ready chronicler if he would finish his tale e 

 winter comes round again. Better to be part of 

 oneself ; to be shone on and rained on ; tramp t) 

 plain and roam the moor ; to know the joy of t; , 

 quickening year, which is for every man for himself, 

 and as little to be passed from one to another as the 

 song of a bird or the scent of a flower. 



There is one bird which at this time comes 

 prominently into notice, whether on hill or plain 

 the lapwing ; for, a slight depression in grass field or 

 fallow in the lowlands, or among the heather am 

 ling of the moor, serves to receive the four blotche' 

 brown eggs which this bird lays in early April, ope 

 to the sky, as a lapwing's eggs should be. 



