day like this helps me to understand the THE 



"Spring Song" of Mendelssohn or of Grieg. OF^TlS^YEAR 



Spring is sometimes called fickle. It is only 

 sportive and vibrant with life. Its promise of 

 summer never fails us. 



Spring may play hide-and-seek with winter 

 today, clutch you with fingers of frost to- 

 morrow, or even cast a dash of sleet in your 

 face, or throw over you a sheet of snow, but 

 you must not forget that spring is "the youth- 

 erie of the year," and, like all youth, full of life 

 and fun and all sorts of insolence. 



And, like all youth, spring is privileged. He 

 will play his pranks, and we, the older and 

 wiser, will smile and forgive, for we know that 

 next day he will be full of smiles and promises 

 again. We do not have it in our hearts to be 

 vexed long with this beautiful and fun-loving 

 youth. How easily we forgive and forget the 

 pranks of youth! 



I see I have been speaking of spring in the 

 masculine gender. Am I not mistaken ? Do not 

 the poets and the artists paint spring as a 

 maiden with a flower between finger and 

 thumb — crocus, violet, or primrose ? Yet will 

 [73] 



