SHAD-BUSH 



"When the shad blossoms trilliums are specking the woods with white, violets have come 

 in place of hepaticas, and warblers keep the thickets rustling. The woods, which soon will be 

 closed with masses of green, are still open. It is a moment when such fragility as the beauty 

 of the shad blossom gets the setting it needs. It is a flash of beauty in the woods, an evan- 

 escent delight which touches the earth and is gone." Thus far the poet, but the birds know 

 how the blossoms are in due time transmuted into purple berries, rich and juicy and sweet, which 

 are good to drop into the mouths of greedy offspring. 



