NEWS OF SPRING 



season bathe here in the blue air of an eternal summer. But 

 it seeks pretexts, it lingers, it loiters, it goes to and fro like an 

 unoccupied gardener. It pushes aside the branches, caresses 

 with its breath the olive-tree that quivers with a silver smile, 

 polishes the glossy grass, rouses the corollas that were not 

 asleep, recalls the birds that had never fled, encourages the 

 bees that were workers without ceasing; and then, seeing, like 

 God, that all is well in the spotless Eden, it rests for a mo- 

 ment on the ledge of a terrace which the orange-tree crowns 

 with formal blossoms and with radiant fruits; and, before 

 leaving, rests a last look upon its labour of joy and entrusts 

 it to the sun. 



I have followed it, these past few days, on the banks of 

 the Borigo, from the torrent of Carei to the Val de Gorbio; 

 in those little rustic towns, Ventimiglia, Tenda, Sospello; in 

 those curious villages, perched upon their rock, Castellar, 

 Sant' Agnese, Castillon; in that adorable and already quite 

 Italian country which surrounds Mentone. You pass through 

 a few streets quickened with the cosmopolitan and somewhat 

 hateful life of the Riviera; you leave behind you the band- 



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