VI 



APRIL DAYS 



At last there is full and complete as- 

 surance of spring, in spite of the 'bald- 

 ness of the woods, the barrenness of 

 the fields, bleak with sodden furrows of 

 last year's ploughing, or pallidly tawny 

 with bleached grass, and untidy with the 

 jetsam of winter storms and the wide 

 strewn litter of farms in months of fod- 

 dering and wood-hauling. 



There is full assurance of spring in 

 such incongruities as a phoebe a-perch 

 on a brown mullein stalk in the midst of 

 grimy snow banks, and therefrom swoop- 

 ing in airy loops of flight upon the flies 

 that buzz across this begrimed remnant 

 of winter's ermine, and of squirrelcups 

 flaunting bloom and fragrance in the face 

 of an ice cascade, which, with all its glit- 

 ter gone, hangs in dull whiteness down 

 the ledges, greening the moss with the 

 moisture of its wasting sheet of pearl. 

 27 



