ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
I 19 
SPRING FLOWERS. 
HEN Spring came into the garden 
Her holiday-time to keep, 
She walked about in the dawning, 
And found the flowers asleep. 
At first she wakened the snow-drops 
And washed their faces with rain, 
And then she fed them with sunlight, 
And gave them white frocks again. 
The crocuses next she summoned,— 
In purple stripes and yellow,— 
And she made the south wind shake them 
Till each one kissed his fellow. 
The .sleeping daffodils heard her, 
And nodded low as she passed : 
Each blossom dropped like a pennon 
Hung out from a tall green mast. 
Into the violet’s eyes she looked. 
And spoke till she made them hear. 
“ What are you dreaming now ? ” she said. 
They answered, “That Spring is here.” 
And then the trees stretched their fingers 
And opened their curled-up leaves, 
And the birds who sat and watched them 
Flew straight to their cool green eaves. 
One made her nest in the ivy, 
And one in the apple-tree ; 
But the thrush showed hers in secret 
To the south wind and the bee. 
THE FIELDS IN MAY. 
W HAT can better please, 
When your mind is well at ease, 
Than a walk among the green fields in May ? 
To see the verdure new, 
And to hear the loud cuckoo, 
While sunshine makes the whole world gay : 
When the butterfly so brightly 
On his journey dances lightly, 
And the bee goes by with business-like hum ; 
When the fragrant breeze and soft, 
Stirs the shining clouds aloft, 
And the children’s hair, as laughingly they come: 
When the grass is full of flowers, 
And the hedge is full of bowers. 
And the finch and the linnet piping clear, 
Where the branches throw their shadows 
On a footway through the meadows, 
With a book among the cresses winding clear. 
W. Allingham. 
