Earliest Signs of Spring 



detect, as it were, the insidious blandishments 

 and diplomatic wiles of artful spring — grim 

 winter's fair antagonist — who afterward so gal- 

 lantly puts all his batteries to flight with her 

 inexhaustible artillery of smiles. Winter, like 

 a burly giant, relies for his supremacy on 

 bluster and open violence. Spring's victories 

 are won by woman's skill in dainty strata- 

 gem. 



There are some individuals that always find 

 the earliest indications of plant and animal 

 life, in their region, with each returning 

 spring. They have plucked the anemone, and 

 heard the bluebird (which is like the rainbow, 

 a gently uttered promise that there shall be 

 no more winter), many days before the dis- 

 covery is vouchsafed to others ; and they take 

 immense satisfaction in the fact that Nature's 

 secrets have been whispered to them first. The 

 success of such people is due partly to good 

 fortune ; but I will not enviously rob them of 

 all credit; it is due still more to a deathless 

 ambition for such pre-eminence. If they made 

 the first discovery, and were unable to publish 

 it abroad, it would probably be, in the poet's 

 phraseology, like fire shut up in their bones. 

 While I am equally glad to welcome these 



2S5 



