My First Summer 



may learn, however hard we try ! Yet why 

 bewail our poor inevitable ignorance? Some 

 of the external beauty is always in sight, 

 enough to keep every fibre of us tingling, 

 and this we are able to gloriously enjoy 

 though the methods of its creation may lie 

 beyond our ken. Sing on, brave Tamarack 

 Creek, fresh from your snowy fountains, 

 plash and swirl and dance to your fate in 

 the sea; bathing, cheering every living thing 

 along your way. 



Have greatly enjoyed all this huge day, 

 sauntering and seeing, steeping in the moun- 

 tain influences, sketching, noting, pressing 

 flowers, drinking ozone and Tamarack water. 

 Found the white fragrant Washington lily, 

 the finest of all the Sierra lilies. Its bulbs 

 are buried in shaggy chaparral tangles, I sup- 

 pose for safety from pawing bears; and its 

 magnificent panicles sway and rock over the 

 top of the rough snow-pressed bushes, while 

 big, bold, blunt-n osed bees drone and mumble 

 in its polleny bells. A lovely flower, worth 

 [ 136] 



