36 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



bees, when they first come from the hives 

 after their winter rest, find but scanty food. 

 The earliest pollen they bring home to feed 

 to the bee babies is the pollen of the skunk- 

 cabbage. The delicate, honey-loving flies 

 have scarcely appeared, and perhaps the 

 lurid color and abundant pollen are more 

 attractive to less dainty kinds, for it is they 

 that visit these flowers at this season when 

 we rarely find them elsewhere. 



It is unkind to nickname a plant after 

 its one fault. If it could defend itself it 

 might not be so bad, but a plant is help- 

 less. I wish some one could rebaptize 

 this healthy, hearty friend of mine and 

 give it some more appreciative name — 

 "spring herald," — perhaps, for it is our 

 first spring flower, and it carries a trumpet 

 beautiful enough in form and color to fit 

 any message. 



But it is not only on the ground and in the 

 air that we see the signs of renewed activ- 

 ity. Even beneath the ground the creat- 

 ures that have kept far below the frost line, 

 or buried in deep sleep, are beginning to 



