Page:Alice Lauder.pdf/148

“The elms have heard the whisper of spring already, and have told the secret to the oaks; these, however, as become trees of royal birth, are slow in coming out, and like to keep the procession waiting. I understand from Tennyson, who has taught our generation so much natural history, that the shy ash-tree is the last to appear—‘delaying as the tender ash delays.’ We don’t happen to have an English ash within calling distance, but I see the horse-chestnut at the gate opening out his crumpled green sleeves in the sunshine; and as for the willows, they are positively swimming in delicate foliage. I opened my window this morning, and could not imagine where the hum of hundreds of bees was coming from. It sounded like a crowd of spinning-wheels all softly spinning together, and looking about I found the sound came from a weeping willow, covered with catkins and full of bees.

“Clare is talking about having a little dinner party still. She has been talking about it for the last three months, but, if the truth must be told, Mrs. Mead’s temper has not been of the sunniest, and to go into action without her consent would be foolhardy, if not atheistical. Mrs. Mead is one of those cooks that men would not willingly let die, and when she is in the right mood you fear no foe whom you invite to dinner;