this second clap convinces him. Let not the ordinary, un- 
mechanieal mind seek to unravel the mystery ! As an antidote 
for the Jays, we point to our Orioles, regretting that they lack 
the haunting love song of their Baltimore relative. And one 
should not miss the song of our Thrush in the Orange tree at 
eventide. 
Minerva B. Foote. 
A Fig for a Song 
"A fig for a song," — eame the challenging note. 
Through fig-laden boughs, from a Song Sparrow's throat, 
"A fig for a song, — 'tis only fair! 
Through long winter months when the tree is bare 
With melody sweet I fill the air. 
"A fig for a song" — 'tis only fair! 
"A fig for a song, "—from a Mocking Bird near — 
"We've come not to steal, nor to profiteer. 
A fig for a song is surely not dear! 
All day and all night I work over-time; 
In vers libre sing, — with rliythm sans rhyme. 
"A fig for a song, — and that's no bluff!" 
A fig for a song is cheap enough. 
GEACE M. BAENES. 
Desert ^1^ wild flowers in all localities have their peculiar charm, 
Wild ^^^ there are no flowers that have a more distinctly individual 
Flowers charm than those of the desert. The very words, "desert wild 
flowers," hold in themselves a sort of paradox. To know the 
desert five-sixths of the year, windswept and sunswept with 
its hard or sandy floor covered by a scattering growth of 
Aveather-beaten shrubs and thorny Cactus, one feels that it is 
a place unfitted for tender things to exist ; and then some day 
to mount a ridge and look down upon this same desert trans- 
formed into a sea of color as far as the eye can reach, is a 
dramatic, unforgettable experience. 
The desert wild flowers do not come in profusion every 
year. In fact, they come only in occasional years when all 
conditions work together for their production. The essential 
thing is rain ; then more rain before the sprouting seeds have 
been baked by an intervening spell of heat; and again more 
rain to bring the growing plants to perfection. Such a season 
occurred in Southern California during the spring of 1920, 
with the result that everywhere you went you were met with 
the question. "Have you been out on the Colorado Desert 
this spring?" or "Have you seen the flowers on the Mojave?" 
The w^onder of the Mojave Desert which burst upon the 
view of the beholder from the summit of every pass in miles 
78 
