in toward the stems from which
they had been expanding. Over the low fence, the blue phlox, that dainty
carpeting of the May woods, shut its starry flowers, and lay close to
the ground. Quiet as we were, we could see the birds find sheltered
nooks in the trees about us.

But soon the rain ceased, the clouds passed away, and the sun shone
again, giving us a rainbow promise on the passing drops. Everything woke
up! The birds were first to rejoice, and a veritable oratorio of praise
and joyfulness sounded about our ears. The leaves quickly expanded,
fresher than ever; the flowers uncurled and unfolded, the May-apple
umbrellas raised again; and all seemed singing a song as joyous as that
of the birds, though audible only to the nerves of eye and brain of the
human beings who had thus witnessed another of nature's interior
entertainments.

How much we miss by reason of fear of a little wetting! Many of the
finest pictures painted by the Master of all art are visible only in
rain and in mist; and the subtlest coloring of tree leaf and tree stem
is that seen only when the dust is all washed away by the shower that
should have no terrors for those who care for the truths of nature. In
these days of rain-proof clothing, seeing outdoors in the rain is not
even attended by the slightest discomfort, and I have found my camera
quite able to stand a shower!

Another of the early spring-flowering small trees--indeed, the earliest
one that blooms in white--is the shad-bush, or service-berry. Again the
"common" names are trifling and inadequate; shad-bush because the
flowers come when the shad are ascending the rivers along which the
trees grow, and service-berry because the pleasant fruits are of
service, perhaps! June-berry, another name, is better; but the genus
owns the mellifluous name of Amelanchier, and the term Canadensis
belongs to the species with the clouds of little white flowers shaped
like a thin-petaled star. The shad-bush blooms with the trilliums--but I
may not allow the spring flowers to set me spinning on another hank!

[Illustration: Blooms of the shad-bush]

Searching for early recollections of trees, I remember, when a boy of
six or seven, finding some little green berries or fruits, each with its
long stem, on the pavement under some great trees in the Capitol Park of
my home town. I could eat these; and thus they pleased the boy as much
as the honey-sweet flowers that gave rise to them now please the man.
T