THE MASSING OF SUMMER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15906, 1 May 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MASSING OF SUMMER.

; : n S "" ', .'■■ BY ELSIE K., MORTON. A '' tfi •': , ■■' , ■/■'■•. '"*" • Such ■, a ? long, bright summer it has been, sunshine ; and clear v ? skies l month after month, that' it is .'almost with ' surprise 'we listen at last to the , echo of summer's footsteps as she passes/hear in quiet moments the' dying cadence of '■ her : song. ; . All ■ her panoply of ; ; green, and blue is vanishing; trees ! are • shedding:their, leaves, and grey shadows lie in. autumn skies. The myriad voices of the winged world are stilled, though. here . and there ' a belated ' cicada, like one ■ born out of it due . season, still mikes tentative little noises in some neighbouring tree top. But the crickets! Somewhere about February they start in telling us, loquacious little;, busy-bodies, that autumn is just about, due. They, leap about on baking hillsides by the million, dodging in and. out of earth cracks, thin, black bodies glistening in 'the sun;*' revelling in the warmth, even as they whimper incessantly it will all soon be" a' thing of the past. There is probably no more unpopular insect ..with, thp majority of women than the cricket, entirely harmless, yet on account of his colour and the wonderful strength of his back legs, regarded with horror and distrust.

And now at last we listen to the dirgo of the cricket, and realise his inevitable meaning; summer- has passed on her way to" the cold north lands, and autumn is here,- in rich robes of gold and red and russet-brown. Already summer's heralds are piping afar the. music of her coming. In .the .northern world the first of the spring flowers are decking garden, forest, and' field; spring, with ■ wind-tossed , hair, flushed with the wine of new life, is making, ready to fling her garlands at the feet of her queen. Loveliest of all flowers are the wild flowers in the garlands of spring. In England, Capo Colony, Thibet, and tho Rockies ' bloom : some 'of' the : most magnificent of all wild flowers. Over Californian forests, and field spring to-day has 'flung a mantle of beauty unknown in these isles of southern. seas. Fields of escholtzia form a rippling sea of gold, with blue islets of lupin set bravely, here and there. All down dusty roads thatwjnd towards the deep heart of tho great valleys, Santa Clara, San Jose, and San Joaquin, a host of dainty blossoms marches valiantly.. And then 'the mountains! So different are they from our own sombre bush land, so carpeted and mantled - with ■ beauty! Here the rata throws a' vivid flare of scarlet, clematis festoons ' the .trees with starry whiteness, and kowhia falls in a. golden shower—but that is all, that, and a few dainty lesser blooms, fuchsia., puriri, hinau, and: st • on, But Californian .'Mountain sides in spring! From afar they are veiled in faint blue mist, and coming closer you see it is the. wild lilac, massed in waves of bloom all down the, mountain • side. Beneath the mighty redwoods, towering skyward in serried line a, little track, holds i a• wealth of forest;beauty.. Strav beams of sunshine 'strike down through dark, cool depths,' and 'at '.th*. foot of redwoods, hundreds of feet high, hundreds of years old, they ; fall on the glinting gold of a carpet of yellow violets, mistily starred with , mauve; pansies with tiny faces upturned ', to; the light-the \ infinitely .■ great and the infinitely little of Nature's wondrous j handiwork revealed in trees and flowers. , Scarlet i<x>lumbine flaunts bravely abbi's,'a.thank,?"of*dewkVet.' fern; down ' among the ; shadows .by. the creek white' enf cream and blue iris.dip tojthe water's edge. 'Over in a; grassy patch is a cluster of mission bells, among the loveliest of all »P r,l ?S.powers; dark plum-coloured they are. with'greepish'spots;'slender hard to find in their (mridus coloured garb. Harebells fcfeo there -are in this forest garden, pink with that translucent, pearly ..pink, which tmges.the sea-shells. Other flowers there ,me, trilliums, in fascinating variety feathery, bloom , of: Solomon's seal; huckleberry, massed in clouds of pint, bell' like •--. blossom ~ wild r raspberry, a « snowwhite >• vagrant, wandering everywhere; scented ; pussv-w-ll&ws-oh, .'lots' and S lots of triem, all colours, all /shapes'; : more beauty in one short spring day than in all the years of; our fl.owerless forest! So soon they - vanish, v ;and /then .. com© ' summer's hardier oloorac,',. chief among ; them v the gorgeous ' tiger-lily, ; that queens. if. over the ferns at the water's edge; and Indian wari nor, scarlet; bold, and brilliant as a flame, /cry lovely they are, these wild flowers,' harbingers of spring, spangling brightness in summer's robe but last they go, and then iabout tho time the i begin their ; plaint, ":iiv the still, dreaming days of Indian .summer, ,- the golden rod waves its s plumes, the poison-oak takes on its treacherous,, flashy;mantle,: and .with its failing brightness, ; winter, at, last stretches out her chill arms.' and ! mother eartjft..folds 1 deep, : into her,' warm bosom ali her little j ones. N ; -,'.;:". ' T , - ; -i '~;/,. "■' .., -;. /.■/ /■;

No sleet nor snow of the north lands do we know; in our ' own country, . nothing of that wonderful sleep, that storing of life by which alone in those 'far lands life continues; ana seed time and. harvest fail riot. With us tho passing of summer means not;: much *. more than 'the and of picnic days, extra singlet; or so, " and black shoes < for white ' Yet just ' as' surely, if not so ;. poignantly, as those northern peoplos, we fed that something good and gracious is lost to'.us; when sun begins to - climb down from ' directly overhead, down, down,' until his daily courso covers but. a /little ■arc : in trie circling ; immensity above. Winter days are so / short, its winds so cold, its skies so grey end chillall this we , are apt to say in speaking of the days ahead/and yet lif .we come to. take' note of our lesser blessings, are ever skies bluer than our skies on .sparkling winter days, is ever air more bracing than when white r frost crisps. tlie grass underfoot, is any. gold ' brighter than the sunshine of mid-day"? ••'>.*-, So kindly , our winter is., kinder often than many another's summer. Christchurch, for instance, lesser cities of*the South,, even Wellington, where a man may be ' on speaking terms with his , overcoat all ihe year through ; ; Auckland—this sunjmer at least—has been spared that indignity; always there is, at least a- nominal hunt for mackintosh and rubbers tvhed winter days draw nigh!...' ' * .•« And with :t all, this passing of 'a summer 1 that has been so beautiful, yet to many' ,so ' cruel. in, its pitiless, ' blazing beauty, there conies, a feeling of profound thankfulness that things are still well'with us. Tho first 5 swe'H notes, of . the spring song were sounding when came.the crash of war'j'lhe first footsteps 'of summer were yet faint when from our hearts and homes went those" most dear. ' All summer J through, have we waited for word which has not failed; we know all is still well with the • men; over the cea—with, most of tHem, that 13. There are gaps already in those fine, firm ranks,' and in many , a sorrowing heart; but for us the grim harvest time of war' is not yet. Through the winter safely they have come as wo through summer; . for them now.' the promise of (spring and fulfilment of a great purposo; for us. a winter's writing. - This summer tide for us lias been a/breathing space from the feverish unrest oi spring, as time . of. preparation for whatever winter may bring. Before the song r-f summer sounds again- the feet, of many will have trodden the path' that leads through dark 0-11 d lonely places,.and the word " war"- will have* translated its: ' full: grim : meaning in hearts which to-day are care-free and filled with ; summer's brightness. 1 ! But never yet , has winter been able to' stay when the time comes for ice-bound rivers to break through to ! the open sea; when - tho first brave little flower wins through to warmth and light, and just, as the passing of summer means- naught but a pause in which . vitality is 1 ' renewed, so that life-shall be blessed still moro abundantlv, so not.all the war !of a world can ' cast" more than a.;passing: cloud over the : wer'-brightneaa righteousness, peace, : I and truth, • forever F the"; God-given heritage, of Q»B*