36 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
merits, and while glittering before the eye, filling the 
heart with the noblest emotions. 
Hail, beautiful Season of Buttercups ! thrice beautiful 
in thy timid gentleness, thy confiding innocence, and thy 
fulness of rich promise! Welcome, fragrant season of 
slanting sunbeams, fresh birth-time of yellow flowers ! 
When the dear children go with hearts full of spring¬ 
time, and hopes yet in the unfolded bud,—searching for 
the snow-flakes and the spangles, the daisies and the 
buttercups, which they think heaven has let fall as 
manna; then, wearied with prattle, to loiter home, in 
twos and threes, laden with their flowery spoils, to lie 
and dream all night of worlds made of flowers, and 
people with yellow faces and white daisy eyes, and yellow 
hair, walking upon yellow ground, on which there is not 
room to tread without crushing the buttercups. Wel¬ 
come, bright birthday of flowers and song; soft season 
of verdurous freshness, bringing back the growth and 
glory of the world, and filling manhood's heart with 
dreams of boyhood, and the fairy pictures of the past! 
Welcome, Season of Buttercups, and soft gales that kiss 
the cheek with coolness ! When the honeysuckle peeps 
in for the first time at the open window; when we ven¬ 
ture out once more with heads uncovered, and watch the 
sparrows as they flutter round the ivy; and, forgetting 
hawks and cats, imagine their life a more joyous one 
than our own; when the hills come nearer to us with 
their fresh green flanks, and the wild wood warbles with 
a full heart's song; when the bare branches wake from 
the night of winter to the morning of spring, to peep at 
the buttercups and blades of light green grass that 
