E "Where Nature Reigns" ASTER was perfect. The sun was a true Easter sun, brilliant, yet softened in its heat by the light vapours which portended new storm; the deep blue sky, with its mare'stail clouds, was worthy altogether of Hamlet's appreciation: "This most excellent canopy, the air, look you! this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,"for such was the show of Sunday. It could not be surpassed if one had the pick of the year. And the tender, wooing, winning movement of the light breeze coaxed out more than the blossoms, and these and the grasses and clovers, feeling the invitation of the gentle rain, sprang with instant response. What a day it was for the red maples and the elms-the scarce slippery elm was in flower in a miraculous moment, a richer, larger, sweeter flower than that of the white elm. The poplar's tassels swung free and scattered pollen, and the willow pussies burst from kittenhood into full bloom, and the bees took their first full taste D |