The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-02
A WOMAN'S WORD
FROM ELI WEST
BY Mrs. Meta Folger Townsend.

That is but poor order of mind
which does not respond to the sug
| gestiveness of spring. The mystery
and the miracle of it will arouse many
| a man to poetry in thought and deed,
| if not in word. q see that my boy,
| Bob Gray, has been excited by fore
cast of spring time until he has writ
ten what is really much better poetry
| than a deal of the rhyming one finds
scattered abroad.)
Approach it lightly, if we will, in
the serio-comic way that we often
affect in order to hide our deeper
feeling, still the return of spring, the
| re -awakening of Mother Earth, is ever
one of the most wonderful of all Won
lers, one of the most powerful of all
potencies.
There are to me. no more perfect
days than those which sometimes
come to US during the two much
maligned months. March and Novem-
Der. These first spring days wherein
there is promise and a hint of what
may prove unusual fullneSs of beauty
suggest to me the sweetness of girl
hood.
Richard Burton, in a poem on
March, speaks of her days as being
sweet as womanhood." Rather do /
think the most perfect days of No
vember suggest the beauty and sweet
ness of matured womanhood. Some
what of freshness, of glow and bloom
has she lost, to be replaced by a
quieter beauty, that of promises we'll
fulfilled, of ripeness, of strength
mingled with all the tenderness of ma
turity
On the other hand these early
days, instead of being "too brash" as
James Whitcomb Riley would say
he who "abominates the promises" of
spring-have for me all the charm of
4 young girl who shows from day to
day some rare surprise-a new touch
Of womanhood at one time, again a
moment Of the old free. bosterOus life
that may belong to girlhood when not
too sternly disciplined timid flush
and shrinking at the coming of new
fancieS and forces rather than 4 glad
Out-reaching to grasp the life before
her.
The grass on the lawn is taking on
4 greenness which rests the eye, the
little Towering plants are bravely lift
ing their heads and contributing their
bit of color to the scene in spite of a
neglect which comes from the fact
that the itinerant machinery has so
far, no screw or crank to notify the
incoming mistress that here on the
vest side of the walk, four feet due
southeast from the study window, is
I hyacinth bulb and down there on
the same side of the walk, six and a
half feet from the gate, a narcissus
will surely uplift itself.
l am reminded of a certain March
lay of the past when for me the earth
vas re-created afresh. For weeks
my world was compassed by the walls |
Of my room and the light wos OBJ |
scured for the sake or weak eyes. Then |
came a time when the forces of nature |
rallied and a inconsistencies for the |
sight of the dear old earth possessed |
me. One fair morning my hammock |
vas swung on the front porch of the |
big, old-fashioned farmhouse, once
the home of Governor Stokes, of |
to lie there awhile.
The glory broke upon my sight |
Even now the memory of it fills my |
heart to fullness. 1t CLEANS before |
my inward eye. There's the wide |
sweep of the valley and in the midst |
If 1t the Yadkin flowing between it's !
fringing willows which are putting on |
their dress of tenderest green. Across |
the valley and fronting the homestead |
stands Owens Knob, softened by the |
haze. Farther off stretches a long |
line of mountains, a charmed land or |
blue distances Down there in the old |
garden are the graves of members of
the Stokes family, among them the
brave Col Sid Stokes, who was killed
n the fighting around, Richmond, and
whose body was brought back for
burial in the home which now has
passed into alien hands
The birds have gone mad with joy,
because of springs coming. The
spruce and cedar trees are alive with
them. The air is a-quiver with their
song. And above all flooding all is
the glorious light of the morning sun.
Unless you have been in the shadow
you do not know the beauty of sun
shine; unless you have been in the
lepths you do not know the powers
IF the whey air which belongs to the
heights.
Lying there with that scene before
me the landscape Tapped in the soft
embrace of spring, the doubts and
fears and shadowing of my past life
seemed unreal-immortality is the
)ne sure thing. Here it is. The whole
earth is agloW with it. Our God is a
God of miracles Cease your babb-
lings, we puny doubters! See this
new world rising out of deadness
Browning's lines are eternally true.
They are worn with usage, but fresh
to the newborn heart:
1.-THE years at the spring,