NEWS OF SPRING 



But, even there, the Pelargonium, red with indignation, 

 and the Begonia, crimson with rage, came to surprise and 

 hustle the unoffending little band ; and they fled to the farms, 

 the graveyards, the little gardens of the rectories, of the old 

 maids' houses and of the country convents. And now hardly 

 anywhere, save in the oldest forgotten villages around tumble- 

 down cottages, far from the railways and the nursery-garden- 

 er's overweening hot-houses, do we find them again with their 

 natural smile: not wearing a driven, panting and hunted look, 

 but peaceful, calm, restful, plentiful, careless and at home. 

 And, as in former times, in the coaching days, from the top of 

 the stone wall that surrounds the house, through the rails of 

 the white fence or from the sill of the windows enlivened by a 

 caged bird, on the motionless road where none passes save the 

 eternal forces of life, they see Spring come and Autumn, rain 

 and sun, the butterflies and the bees, silence and darkness, fol- 

 lowed by the light of the moon. 



3 

 Brave old flowers! Wall-flowers, Gillyflowers, King- 

 cups, Stocks! For, even as the wild flowers, from which a 

 trifle, a ray of beauty, a drop of perfume, divides them, they 



[i8o] 



