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 EARLY SPRING 7

narcissus, crocuses, and daisies were out. Through the brown grass a few green blades were showing. Rose leaf-buds were bursting. A few apricot blossoms had actually bloomed. The whole garden was filled with the spring song of the birds lightly turning to thoughts of love. And in the house the friendly little bulbuls with their coquettish top-knots came confidingly in at the windows and perched on the curtain rails or chairs, and even on the table to peck sugar from the basin.

And so for many days the weather lasted, the temperature a degree or two below freezing-point at night, and rising to a maximum of 55° in the shade and 108° in the sun in the day-time; and day after day cloudlessly clear. ‘The country outside the garden had an entirely winter aspect. The trees were leafless and the grass frost-withered. The mountains were still covered with snow to within onesor two thousand feet of the valley bottom. In the early morning the valley glistened silvery white with hoar frost and the snowy ranges stood out distinct and sharp. But towards noon summer fought with winter. In the still air the sun’s rays with daily increasing power had all the warmth of a summer day in England. And the mountains faded in a dreamy haze.