CHESTNUTS AND CHINQUAPINS 195 



cousin to the beautiful buckeyes of the South. 

 The sudden glistening and shining of the big 

 horse-chestnut buds in their heavily varnished 

 coats is as much a harbinger of spring as the 

 first bluebird. The winds may blow cold after- 

 ward, snow may come down in real earnest, but 

 the buds continue to glimmer and glisten. And 

 then one day when we begin to think they are 

 holding out false promises after all, presto ! the 

 skies clear, the sun shines out warm and bright 

 and the buds bravely begin to loosen their brown 

 scales and show their downy linings. How like 

 they are to little soft fleecy balls of silvery wool ! 

 But only for a few hours, especially if there is 

 bright sunshine and wind with the sunshine. 

 The buds swell and expand very fast, and 

 shortly raise themselves into quaint little green 

 tents. Who knows what wonderful secrets are 

 disclosed behind these fairy bowers? Surely 

 they are fitting booths for the dryads, but we 

 find no tales of fairy lore connected with them. 

 Perhaps because they are of such short dura- 

 tion: for it is not more than a day or two at 

 best until the tents unfold and spread out like 

 a hand with the fingers extended. Soon they 

 are full-grown leaves, strong and large and of 

 a rich dark green, fashioned in the type known 

 to botanists as palmately compound. The long, 



