THE CIRCLING YEAR--A CLOCK.

The circling year is a clock whereon nature writes the hours in
blossoms. First come the wind flowers and the violets, they denote the
early morning hours and are quickly passed. The forenoon is marked by
lilacs, apple blooms and roses. The day's meridian is reached with
lilies, red carnations, and the dusky splendor of pansies and passion
flowers. Then come the languid poppy and the prim little 4 o'clock,
the marigold, the sweet pea, and later the dahlia and the many-tinted
chrysanthemum to mark the day's decline. Lastly the goldenrod, the
aster and the gentian, tell us it is evening time, and night and frost
are close at hand. The rose hour has struck already for '93. The
garden beds are full of scattered petals and the dusty roadways glimmer
with ghostly blossoms too wan to be roses, and wafted by a breath into
nothingness. With such a calendar to mark the advance of decay and
death the seasons differ from the mortal race which substitutes aches
and pains for a horologe of flowers, and grows old by processes of
physical failure and mental blight.




VII.

SOMETHING BETTER THAN SURFACE MANNERS.

There are days when my heart is so full of love for young girls that as
I pass them on the street I feel myself smiling as one does to walk by
a garden of daffodils. And when I see how careful some of them are to
be circumspect and demure, I think to myself how fine a thing it is, to