CHAPTER V— MAY 

 SPRING BUDS AND BLOOMS 



IF I could readjust the calendar. May would 

 have at least fifty days, without abstracting 

 any of them from the April that makes May 

 possible or from the June into which it matvu-es. 

 Many outdoor folks would agree with me that 

 we could spare enough days out of February and 

 early March to stretch May several weeks. 



It is not the work to do and the beauty of the 

 garden to see that is the main motive for this 

 greedy desire. Before I had a growing garden of 

 my own, I spent much of May in God's greater 

 garden, seeing the happenings of that annual 

 resurrection that ought to put faith into anyone. 

 Now that there is much to keep me at Breeze 

 Hill, I am not so free for the woods; yet they call 

 me more than ever. 



I want to see the great fiddle-heads of the 

 cinnamon ferns do again what I have often seen 

 them do. I long for the hillside dotted with red- 

 bud and dogwood. The wild phlox, the mertensia, 

 the "Dutchman's breeches," the May apple, — ^how 



(69) 



