148 WITH EARTH AND SKY 
The season had been delayed, the previous 
winter having been the severest in many years, 
and spring, being frozen in, had been dilatory 
in coming. Even on arriving so late, it had had 
its nose and ears and fingers frost bitten and its 
bare feet decidedly frozen. Thus it was that 
the shadow on the dial of the year was a trifle 
awry. It is good to have it so, lest we should 
grow priggishly sure of things and seasons with- 
out taking the pains of looking. 
On we rushed through green to green, all glad, 
all gladdest. No room for dumpishness any- 
where, just one rush from loveliness to loveliness. 
Then the apocalypse in whose honor I write. 
The right of way was immensely wide, for what 
purpose I know not, but to what purpose I dis- 
covered. Room was here afforded for nature to 
do some pranks. And she did. We took a run 
and jump into such a profusion of color and 
variety of floral decoration as made even an old 
stager with these bewilderments of God to take 
a sharp breath which ended in a cry like the 
ery of discovery. Here was a dazzling huge 
cluster of black-eyed susans which burnt a hole 
in the prairie and stayed blazing like sunlight 
set on fire. Following in immediate succession 
such a profusion of dancing daisies tall and 
tossed and white-and-gold-hearted and all at joy 
of life, and then beside, in quick competition, 
horse mint, huge patches, so as to blot out the 
ground with its gentle luster of tourmaline pink. 
