PRECOCIOUS SPRING 99 



manner* One doe, who nested in a garden, lost her 

 brood and could not keep away from the empty nursery. 

 When, in sheer pity, it was filled and trodden down she 

 dug it all up, still nursing the unconquerable hope that 

 some life might remain. Such things befall, but in 

 general &quot; the failure adds a gem to deck the crown of 

 hope/ The pair build again, and quickly ; and it is 

 seldom that they suffer a second loss. When the buds 

 come the enemy, whether harpies or starvation, are 

 baulked ; and spring is spring indeed. 



In this same abnormal month the anticipators have 

 wonderfully flourished, though they are premature 

 almost beyond memory. The bees have not died on the 

 alighting board, nor the tits perished in their crevice ; 

 and was there ever a year when the young lambs so 

 flourished in the straw shelters ? 



Every shepherd tells his tale 

 Under the hawthorn in the dale 



especially in the dale, with rare pride in the completeness 

 of the tally. Vigorous lambs butt the teats of healthy 

 ewes ; and hive bees return from rolling in the midday 

 crocus, their thighs heavy with orange booty. Food can 

 scarcely be plentiful fof either bee or bird, but both find 

 it. It seems to me that never have I known the robins 

 (which are now nesting) so clamorous. The sight of 

 spade or rake fills them with excitement. You transplant 

 a bush, and before you have well extricated the roots a 

 robin is in the pit, almost risking involuntary interment. 

 Even as I write I see through tie window a robin pur 

 suing the gardener s rake as gulls follow the plough. 



Surrender to this temptation to pre-date spring has 

 involved unwonted energy in the search for food. Hence 

 lamentations from many quarters of the raids on buds 



