THE HAZEL. 



205 



leaves heaped around them. Honey-suckles and elder-bushes bear little 

 tufts cf grev-green leaves. Patches of moss, with here and there a 

 fern nestling, cushion some old pollard stump, and on the guelder- 

 rose there are still juicy red berries. 



Nor are the sounds of animal life wanting : the blue-cap prepares 

 to build while snow is still lying on the open ground. Before 

 spring has well come tiny flowers, like rubies, gem the Hazel-switches, 

 and yellow " lamb's-tails " hang out their bravoury. The first anemone 

 and the first primrose come with the earliest blackbird's nest. The 

 bird-cherry now puts on garlands of brightest green, and spring, and 

 the flowers and bird-songs may be counted well begun. Still the 

 coppice seems a place apart ; in its own way a small world of 

 wonders. The vigorous suckers cf alder and sycamore or some other 

 trees put forth huge leaves, abnormal in size and colouring, most of 

 them tinted red or purple, the oak leaves a bright scarlet. To the 

 full-grown coppice, before its primrose carpet has faded, comes the 

 busy hum of labour ; men, women and children stacking faggots and 

 brushwood, splitting rods for the hooper, " renning " the larger alder 

 poles. Its day of reckoning has dawned. 



