120 
NATURE NOTES 
of Toynbee Hall, is Chairwoman, and Miss E. R. Philp, of 22, 
Lavington Road, Ealing Dean, W., is Secretary, are arranging 
during the next six weeks lectures or informal talks to the 
children at their schools, and they hope in July to gather just 
the children chosen to go away through the Fund into groups 
for special lantern lectures. What is wanted first, is volunteer 
lecturers in London, and second, perhaps, others in the villages 
to which the children are sent. A few simple words may do 
much good. It is easy to explain to children that they should 
not diminish the beauties of the country which they enjoy by 
scattering waste-paper, throwing away flowers, cutting initials 
on trees, writing their names on ancient walls or molesting wild 
animals ; while town-bred children also require to be instructed 
how to look for and recognise many of the beautiful objects of 
interest which will be close before their eyes. Those who can 
help should communicate direct with Miss Philp. 
SPRINGTIME. 
WAS staying in London this spring about the end of 
April ; primroses and violets were being sold at the 
corner of every street, reminding me that the country 
must be looking its best in its fresh spring dress. I 
had been in town some weeks, and I now resolved to leave it 
for a few hours and spend at least the next day in the country. 
1 awoke the following morning with a feeling of delight as 
I remembered the pleasure I had in store for myself. It caused, 
however, some amusement at the breakfast table, and no one 
volunteered to acccompany me, for they could not understand 
how I could leave London with its many interests for “a stupid 
walk in the muddy country.” Notwithstanding their remarks 
I started after breakfast in very good spirits, for it was a beau- 
tiful sunshiny morning, and within an hour the train left me at 
a pretty country station about twelve miles from London. 
It was indeed a delightful scene that met my eyes as I stood 
near a stile overlooking some fields. These meadows with 
their many mounds were quite green, for the grass had already 
pushed up long blades, which bent by a touch from the wind 
like so many plumes. The slender runners of the strawberries 
were nearly hidden by the grass as they trailed over the mounds 
among the moss. The fresh green everywhere with the song 
of the lark overhead was quite enough to awaken a feeling of 
true joy in my heart. 
The fields looked really so tempting that I resolved to get 
over the stile, and take at least some part of my walk by the 
fields. The sky overhead was a pale blue with only a few clouds 
