Aye, it is fair indeed in the woods when Spring comes gaily in. Spring
is the very Saviour, as it were, of all the numberless folk, great and
small, which grow green and blossom there, wherefore the forest holds
festival for his birthday and cradle feast as is but fitting! The fir-
tree lights up brighter tips to its boughs, as children do with tapers at
Christmastide. Then comes the largesse. It lasts much more than one
evening, and the gifts bestowed on all are without number, and bright and
various indeed to behold. As a father's tinkling bell brings the
children together, so the snowdrop bells call forth all the other
flowers. First and foremost comes the primrose, and cowslips--Heaven's
keys as we call them--open the gates to all the other children of the
Spring. "Come forth, come forth!" the returning birds shout from out
the bushes, and silver-grey catkins sprout on every twig. Beech leaves
burst off their sharp, brown sheaths and open to the light, as soft as
taffety and as green as emeralds.
The other trees follow the example, and so teach their boughs to make a
leafy shade against the sun as it mounts higher. Every creature that
loves its kind finds a voice under the blossoming May, and the dumb
First Page Previous Page Next Page Last Page
Read Pause
Resume
Stop
Titles Menu View Credits and Copyright
|