Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
of rough weather, believed to occur in the beginning of April 
or rather at the time when the cuckoo is first heard— -and 
metaphorically, to signify an evil which does not last long. 
The earliest English song, I believe, known, dating back to 
the thirteenth century, is the old one : 
Summer is icumen in, 
Loudly sing cuckoo, 
Groweth seed and springeth mede, 
And springs the weed anew. 
It is curious how many plants are associated with the 
Cuckoo beside the Woodsorrel. Ragged Robin, called 
also Cockskaim and Meadow Pink ( Lychnis flos-cuculi) } is 
sometimes called Cuckoo-flower, a name more often given 
to the Cardamine pratense , or Lucy Locket. Canterbury 
Bells are sometimes called Gowkshose, a name given to the 
Bluebell or Wild Hyacinth in Dumbartonshire. In Ayrshire 
the Polytrichum commune , or Great Golden Maidenhair, 
goes by the name of Gowksbear, while in Lanarkshire the 
Yellow Rattle ( Rhinanthus cristagalli) is the Gowks-shilling. 
Gowk is also a term for a fool, and to “hunt the Gowk” means 
to go on a fool’s errand. I heard a Cuckoo calling in the 
Devonshire lanes at Eastertide, but have not heard one here 
yet. It is such a nice cheerful sound, so full of Spring ! 
but Spring as she should be, warm and fair and bright, not 
Spring as she is at present, cold and dank with snow- 
showers. 
TO A WET SUMMER 
Welcome Summer, come at last 
Over seas from some far land, 
Where her flitting footsteps pause, 
Tyrants rise and bid her stand. 
Wet with rain her gauzy robes — 
Hear her tell her sorry tale, 
How, when trying to escape, 
On her flowerlike head beat hail. 
Flooded streams she had to wade, 
Once was nearly swept away ; 
Sank her small bare feet in snow 
In the field instead of hay ! 
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