CHAPTER X 

 THE COMING OF SPRING 



HE calendar tells me, as if it were an 

 incontrovertible fact, like the rest of 

 the events it chronicles, that " spring 

 commences " on the 2ist day of 

 March. But although this is brought to my no- 

 tice as a fact in a beautiful garden diary sup- 

 plied by one of our great seedsmen, for the mo- 

 ment I refuse to accept it, as once, some time ago 

 on a sea voyage, after receiving presents and cele- 

 brating a day I had given out as my birthday, I 

 placidly announced to my disenchanted friends 

 and admirers that in personal matters I did not 

 consider myself bound by the Gregorian calendar. 

 I never could understand what difference it 

 might make to them whether my birthday was 

 on one date or another, according to their particu- 

 lar mode of reckoning ; but it evidently did make 

 a difference, and I took their interest in such a 

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