First Signs of Spring. 313 
CHAPTER XVII. 
NOTES ON THE YEAR—THE TWO NATURAL ERAS—SPIDERS— 
THE SEASONS REPRESENTED TOGETHER—A MURDEROUS 
WASP—FENG-SHUI—THE BIRDS’ WHITE ELEPHANT— 
HEDGE MEMORANDA. 
THERE are few hedges so thick but that in January 
it is possible to see through them, frost and wind hav- 
ing brought down the leaves. The nettles, however, 
and coarse grasses, dry brown stems of dead plants, 
rushes, and moss still in some sense cover the earth of 
the mound, and among them the rabbits sit out in 
their forms. Looking for these with gun and spaniel, 
when the damp mist of the morning has cleared, one 
sign—one promise—of the warm days to come may 
chance to be found. Though the sky be gloomy, the 
hedge bare, and the trees gaunt, yet among the 
bushes a solitary green leaf has already put forth. 
It ison the stalk of the woodbine which climbs up 
the hawthorn, and is the first in the new year—in the 
very darkest and blackest days—to show that life is 
stirring. As it is the first to show a leaf, so, too, it is 
one of the latest to yield to the advancing cold, and 
