Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-04-04
Charles Dudley Warner Goes Forth 20
Meet the Spring.

How shall We meet the spring2 This would
be an easier question to answer if we knew
how the spring, in this latitude, would meet
us-whether half way, or, indeed, at ALL For
in this matter we are not guided by expert
ence. Hope springs eternal in the northern
| breast. And we allow ourselves to be de-
ceived by many artificial conditions we have
created. We get 7O' and So Fahrenheit by
telegraph, and fancy we are warmed. We
eat green peas and rawberries and shad out
of season. and fancy that We have changed
| the course of nature. Lulled into negligence
| by these appearances, man leaves off his over
| coat and next day sends for the doctor. The
doctor, who has all seasons for his own, re.
| CARDS spring as his harvest time. He saves
more lives then than ut any other season.
And lives are worth saving then, for the man
who gets through spring is likely to be a
good patient all the year There never was
a notion so without foundation as this, that
| doctors do not want patients all the year.
This faith in spring is beautiful trait in hu-
man nature. We always expect that this
spring will be early and will be mild, and fif-
| ty years of disappointments do not sour US.
If the winter is hard and heavy, we say that
is sign of early spring if it is open and tol-
erable, we know that we shall have an open
| spring More than this our memory is col
ored like our hope, and as we 60 on in years
we say that in our youth spring was early,
mild and jocund No trout rise so readily
and are SO gamy as the trout of our youth
except the trout we expect TO throw a fly to
this spring. This is the nature of man. No
wonder that the Psalmist exclaimed, What is
man that Thou art mindful of him
How shall We meet the spring? We have
stood long siege, from November to April
A part of the garrison have been "braced up
by it, as they call il others are weary and
worn out, and would have surrendered long
ago if flag of truce had appeared. Their
| energies are exhausted, and Just when they
| need tonic there comes upon them at leap
the debilitating heat of summer. This is,
however, only one way at looking at 1t. More
subtle influences are at work. The plants
the trees, have had as hard time as we have ;
some of them are dead. But those that sur
vive as soon as they feel the coaxing sun and
the increasing warmth in the soil, begin to
get mp their circulation, to quicken the pulse
of their sap, and to bourgeon into the most
exquisite life. We are much like them
Grumble as we will, we, too, feel to the core
of our being the thrill of life newly begin
ming, aud are born again. This is delicious
feeling, this tender sympathy in the renais-
sanoe of all things, this sentiment we feel
about the voice of the frog, and the first flush
Of pink and greon on the trees and the south
wind. For some days everybody however
old, is a possible. lover, and for some hours
everybody is a poet. He experiences a SEN
saton that the poets never have fully express
ed, and that he cannot put in words, or even
into music The song of bird swinging on
a spray of apple blossoms comes nearest to
| expressing his emotion. 1t may not last long,
but while it does last il is like taste of para
disc This is one of the compensations of
our climate. The people in the tropics know
nothing of this sensation. They are not born
again annually. They know nothing of the
| joy in contrast and change. Consequently
they produce no poetry, no literature they
invent nothing they make 10 progress. "
And they are not unhappy.
We should go forth TO meet the spring, as
the poet says, with a stout heart We have
had a long rest from tho innumerable insects,
from the busy fly, and the expeotant worm.
We shall 90 forth to SOW, and to fight all
these enemies with new courage. Science is
! on our side to name all these destroyeTs OF