PREPARING FOR SPRING 
203 
These leafy circles appear like hopeful claims staked 
out for flowering spaces in the spring* The treasure 
located there is the mystery of life* “ In dark soil 
and the silence of the seeds the robe of spring it 
weaves.” Where it is not sustained in the vigorous 
evergreens, the surviving circles of leaves, or the 
hidden roots that endure the winter, it lives in the 
inert seeds that have been scattered and hidden in 
bewildering variety in every crack and wrinkle of the 
receptive earth. It seems strange that every foot 
of that solidly-frozen surface is instinct with life, 
dormant for the moment, but ready to renew its 
infinitude of activities with the changing seasons* 
