year! Pale, delicate little blossoms though they be, and most of them
odorless, their memory grows sweet with our age.

Burt, who had been away to purchase a horse--he gave considerable of his
time to the buying and selling of these animals--drove up as Amy
approached the house, and pleaded for a spray of arbutus.

"But the buds are not open yet," she said.

"No matter; I should value the spray just as much, since you gathered
it."

"Why, Burt," she cried, laughing, "on that principle I might as well give
you a chip." But she gave him the buds and escaped.

"Amy," Webb asked at the supper-table, "didn't you hear the peepers this
afternoon while out walking?"

"Yes; and I asked Alf what they were. He said they were peepers, and that
they always made a noise in the spring."

"Why, Alf," Webb resumed, in mock gravity, "you should have told Amy that
the sounds came from the _Hylodes pickeringii_."

"If that is all that you can tell me," said Amy, laughing, "I prefer
Alf's explanation. I have known people to cover up their ignorance by
big words before. Indeed, I think it is a way you scientists have."

"I must admit it; and yet that close observer, John Burroughs, gives a
charming account of these little frogs that we call 'hylas' for short.