WILD FLOWERS.— WARM WEATHER. 
73 
Flowers are unfolding on all sides — in the fields, along the 
road-side, by the fences, and in the silent forest. One cannot go 
far, on any path, without finding some fresh blossoms. This is a 
delightful moment everywhere, but, in the woods, the awakening 
of spring must ever be especially fine. The chill sleep of winter 
in a cold climate is most striking within the forest ; and now we 
behold life and beauty awakening there in every object ; the varied 
foHage clothing in tender wreaths every naked branch, the pale 
mosses reviving, a thousand young plants arising above the 
bhghted herbage of last year in cheerful succession, and ten 
thousand sweet flowers standing in modest beauty, where, awhile 
since, all was dull and lifeless. 
Violets are found eveiywhere ; the moose-flowers are increas- 
ing in numbers ; young strawberry blossoms promise a fine crop 
of fruit ; the whortleberry- cups are hanging thickly on their low 
branches, and the early elders are showing theii' dark, chocolate 
flower-buds, which we should never expect to open white. The 
ferns are also unrolling their long-colored fans. We gathered 
some ground laurel, but the squirrel-cups are forming theu^ seed. 
Tuesday, IQth. — Wann, cloudy day. The weather clears 
slowly, but the air is delightful, so soft and bland. Strolled 
away from the village in quiet fields by the river, where sloping 
meadows and a border of wood shut one out from the world. 
Sweetly calm ; nothing stining but the river flowing gently past, 
and a few solitaiy birds flitting quietly to and fro, like messen- 
gers of peace. The sunshine is scarcely needed to enhance the 
beauty of May. The veil of a cloudy sky seems, this evening, to 
throw an additional charm over the sweetness of the season. 
At houi's like these, the immeasurable goodness, the infinite 
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