CHAPTER III 



THE MAY FIELDS 



''This is the hour, the day, 

 The time, tlie season sweet. 

 Quick ! hasten, laggard feet. 

 Brook not delay ; 



. . . Maytide will not last ; 

 Forth, forth, while yet 'tis time, before the 

 Spring is past." 



Lewis Morris, Time to Bejoice. 



It is essential that we arrive amid the Alpine 

 fields in JNIay ; for we must watch them from the 

 very beginning. To postpone our coming until 

 June would be to miss what is amongst the 

 primest of Alpine experiences : the awakening of 

 the earlier gems in their shy yet trustful legions. 

 Indeed, in June in any ordinary year, we should 

 risk finding several lovely plants gone entirely 

 out of bloom, except perhaps quite sparsely in 

 some belated snow-clogged corner ; for, be it 



