APRIL 



Gifts of the Sun Instrumental Music A Northering Herald 



The Bee and the Flower A Friendly Robin The Year s 



Programme The most eventful Date 



I. 



SBOUT every eleven or thirteen years we have as 

 and sunny summers as southern peoples. 

 iThree of the sunniest were 1921, 1933 and 1934. 

 In each of these years our lawns were browned if not 

 burnt, at least partially. On a rectory lawn, very care 

 fully kept, the only green parts were the lines which 

 defined the lawn tennis court. You could see distinctly 

 just where every white line had run : was there ever 

 better evidence of the value of chalking grass fields ? 



The sun, being fire, is a good servant, but a bad master ; 

 and happily in England it seldom if ever assumes the 

 mastery ; our only cause of regret is its absence for over- 

 long periods. In all these years, but especially in the 

 last, it did us service with a rare whole-beartedness ; but 

 most of the service was rendered secretly and remained 

 long unconfessed. It baked the wheat grains till they 

 glistened as transparently as &quot; Manitoba Hard &quot; on the 

 plains of Alberta. That was plain enough ; but we did 

 not see, or perhaps appreciate, the enrichment and refine 

 ment of the inner sap, the formation of the flower bud, 

 or the ripening of the buried bulb and well-fed root. 



Horas non numero nisi sennas is a motto of flowers 

 as well as sundials. They expand under the sun 

 and sulk in its absence. The test of the season is the 



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