XX 
REJUVENESCENCE 
PRING is slow of coming to the moor of 
Dinnet, but on 1st April, 1916, it arrived 
almost without warning—alighting, like some great 
beneficent bird, from a distance. We had gone to 
sleep in what seemed like midwinter; it had been 
the most inhospitable March for many a year; we 
awoke to feel the West wind coming in at the 
window, ‘and the simple songs of yellow-hammers 
and titmice, and a new smell from the fir trees; 
and we knew that the winter was over and gone. 
Lochnagar is deep in snow, and all the little hills 
around are black and white, but the snow-wreaths 
could be seen shriveling, and there is over six 
feet in the river where there are usually but three. 
Toa stranger from the South the spring atmosphere 
of the day would seem admirable, but he would 
miss the note of vital exuberance. It has come 
too quickly for that. There are some birds—black- 
headed gulls, oyster-catchers, wagtails, for instance, 
at the flirtation stage; the rooks, lapwings, and 
larks have got past it; but there is not yet any hint 
of the great orchestra which will arrive by and by. 
We saw on our walk one lamb, one tortoiseshell 
butterfly, one hairy caterpillar, and less parsi- 
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