The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1901-09-05
p r . Fl s E
BY Eden Philpotts.
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IN this most ancient orchard, the

IN this most ancient orchard, the
old trees stand disposed irregular
ly, and where veterans have passed
away, their places are filled by young,
supple plants, whose youthful bear
ing, trim uprightness and aspiring
attitude contrast with the gnarled
patriarchs around them and with
those intermediate bearers, now
grown to full vigor of life and splon-
dor of fruition. Here the aged and
adult mingle with the young, as in
human colonies; and from my post
upon a dead stump | mark the
pageant of awakening displayed
amongst them, and breathe new life
from the abundance around me; new
hope from all this promise; new
heart from the music and the color,
from the CLEAN of million petals,
the glow of the sun lances, the song
of the birds. and the undersong of
those little glimmering myriads busy
in every open flower about the vital
matter of honey and bee-brcad.
May is resigning her scepter, and
presently it win be June; but May
departs gloriously, and makes a noble
end in music and such happiness as
only wild things know. She passes
with a swan song of promise; and
here alone | seek If.
ABeneath the orchard spreads Won
derful carpet woven of lush greens,
sunlight and spring hloss oms. The
cuckoo flower and the daisy, the but
tercup, the blue speedwell and the
budding seedheads of many grasses
are ripping to my feet, while where
the orchard slopes towards hazel
hedge great snow-white umbel-bear-
ers ri,e above lesser things, and the
dock and the burdCck prosper, and
the swords or the yellow iris shine
soft bIue-green above running wa
ter The nettles, in vigorous com
munities, look gray amid so much
young verdure, and the last of the
hluebells hang their heads where the
first silver braids of the lady fern
uncurl beside them. Huge cool shad-
ows, almost purple, fall upon this
carpet, and, growing deeper with dis
lance, they make sort of soft gloom
through the regiments of the tree
stems, where these spring upwards
at all angles, Of all shapes, inscribed
with every fantastic lichrn word that
the Mother writes on ancient barks.
In tones of ripe, messy green, of sill
ver-brOwn, and of Silyer-qray, the
trunks arise, ard in wild, perfect con
fusion they thrust forth their boughs
and main branches from the parent
stems. They strike out abruptly;
they start cblique; they spring aloft,
then droop; they droop, then rise:
they turn upon themselves and twist
lovingly back TO the .-~rnt stem
Their feast of form is nartly bidder
at this hour, ard the wonderful har-
monies of curve, droop, line and retic-
ulation of feathering boughs, are al
most draped in vernal garments.
| think lichens love the rose folk
for here, as on the blackthorn and
the whitethorn, they frill and tucker
the baby tree as freely as they cling
like a sere pail to the venerable an
cient. To the very ends of antique
boughs they push and climb, and
now the crimson and snow of the
flowers peep from among their en-
crustations, even as in autumn the
ripening harvest will CLEAN there.
The apple blossom under direct
sunshine is alive with pure light and
wonderful blue shades, for petal
shadow thrown on petal strikes a
cool soft blue, by contrast against
the gold and deep crimson of sunlit
flower and ruby bud. The pageant
passes from wealth of jewelly detail
into dim splendor seen afar. A little
way and the air comes between and
touches the leaf and bough and bios
som mass, and brings all together
and sweeps every line and curve with
the sleepy, milky summer air.
AGAINST this curtain CLEAN the bees: