THE CHANGING YEAR 43 



are fond of them for their beauty and 

 their associations. They give the earliest 

 indication of the waxing, as well as of the 

 waning, of the year. A faint and delicately 

 green efflorescence, spreading over the copse, 

 assures us of the reviving spring the return 

 of Persephone from Dis ; an auburn flush, 

 tinging the woodlands, heralds the chilly 

 approach of winter the recall of Persephone 

 to her dismal home. 



'Come, my beloved, let us go forth into 

 the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let 

 us get up early to the vineyards ; let us see 

 if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape 

 appear, and the pomegranates bud forth.' 

 One cannot hear this passage without being 

 reminded of the regularity with which the 

 trees announce the changes of the seasons. 

 We ought, however, to remember that the 

 whole panorama of the reviving year, with 

 its beauty and gladness, is a pleasure we 

 owe to our temperate climate. Dwellers 

 in the tropics do not enjoy it to the same 

 extent. No winter desolation there over- 

 takes the forests, and therefore no spring 

 joy ensues ; here, the reclothing of the trees 



