VERNAL DAYS 



727 



cutting winds there would be, and the 

 keen night frosts ; but the power of 

 spring was over all. unfolding the buds, 

 opening the blossoms, bidding the birds 

 to sing, calling forth the myriad insects. 

 Damascene purple, white, and yellow, the 

 crocus chalices opened in the garden, 

 and presently a bee visited them. 



" Ere a leaf is on a bush, 

 In the time before the thrush 

 Has a thought about its nest, 

 Thou wilt come with half a call, 

 Spreading out thy glossy breast 

 Telling tales about the sun ; 

 When we've little wannth, or none — 

 Little humble celandine." 



And there were the little tree-creepers, 



"STRETCHING AFAR A WAVING SEA OF PALE GREEN SPEARS AND BLAZONED TRUMPETS. 



MARSHALLED FORTH BY SPRING." 



With lengthening spells of favourable 

 temperature the vernal tide flowed 

 steadily forward ; a new bud, an expected 

 flower, a welcome voice, all the cherished 

 living things coming out in endless suc- 

 cession, Nature filling in the gaps. 



For so long had the woods been bare, 

 dreary, well-nigh deserted, only the dis- 

 turbed pheasant, the whirr of partridge 

 wings, a hooting owl ; and the mosses 

 spreading velvet green. It seemed an 

 age before the celandines bloomed again — 

 first of the woodland flowers — brightening 

 the accustomed places where their heart- 

 shaped leaves had arisen. 



feathered mice, spider hunting, working 

 up and round and down the perpendicular 

 trunks, making pivots of their tail feathers. 

 And the charming tits, as nimble i\s ever, 

 and so man\- ; where\-er had they all 

 come from ! Flitting from tree to tree, 

 swinging from branch to branch, hanging 

 on the twigs, peering round corners, 

 " chee, zee ; chee, zee," an eye here, a 

 peck there, searching every cranny of the 

 bark, restless, inquisitixe. pros]H'cting. 

 'Twere a dull wood without these Pucks 

 of birddom. In lull mijjtial dress in the 

 clear spring-light, at no other time are the 

 rich hues of their j^lumage more lovely. 



