The Music of the Marsh 



At last the sun creeps nearer and smiles ar- 

 dently, and the heart of the pregnant marsh grows 

 "Nvarni. The M'inds come sweeping with wailing The 

 notes and carry away earth's leafv covering; the i^<=*"''- 



* . . ■ rection 



rams pour, and vegetation springs to meet them. 

 As soon as silky catkins hang from the mIIIows 

 and frogs sing their first chorus, only a few days 

 are required to transform the bare old earth into 

 summer fairyland. Graceful, gayly-colored plants 

 and flowers lift their heads everywhere. Like 

 magic, water grasses, cattails, flags, ferns, and del- 

 icate lacy, twining vines spring up to cover the 

 black muck, while moss and air plants trail over- 

 head. Every stump and log has a bright velvet 

 dress, and crimpled lichen faces renew their un- 

 ending shades of gray and green. 



Pond lily pads reach the surface and spread 

 over acres of water, their covering of golden green 

 with tints of purple underneath furnishing choir- 

 lofts for the frogs, sun parlors for tiny turtles, 

 and good hunting grounds for small, wire-legged 

 sanderlings. Above them yellow lilies thrust leaves 

 of ranker gro^^-fh, and these in turn are crowned 

 AA'ith the heart-shaped foliage of Avater hyacintli. 

 Then come the sweet marsh grasses, blue flags, and 

 foxfire, topped with waving cattails and bulrushes, 

 and high above all the graceful wild rice waves its 

 feathery plumes. 



The marsh flowers form masses of positive col- 



327 



