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THE HESPERIAN
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knocked the clothes pole down, and tangled
the line, and tore the clothes in the- prickly
locust hedge. Then the sun was sad, and
covered its face with thick black clouds, the
sky wept gloomily, and the fickle breezes
flow to hide themselves for shamo in the
hollows of the wood.
But the sun was kind. It soon smiled'
again, so brightly that every tear was dried,
and the earth looked all the brighter for the
weeping.
Now, how the merry breezes danced and
flow ! They chased among the apple and
the cherry trees, and teased the modest buds
until the blossoms burst out saucily. Then
they romped with the shining wasps and
bees, and with them tossed the fragrant
blossoms until the air was white with falling
petals.
But now the breezes are weary of play.
They- have grown stroug and steady. They
are now the stern winds that bend the great
tree branches, as they sigh sadly through tho
clustering leaves.
Theso spring winds make the whole world
brothers. At least all of us can imagine
that the rest of people are our brothers. Wo
breath tho same air as they do; we must bo
kin. Tho wind whisks up from the north
west, and in one brief minuto of human
sympathy you and I feel as the fur-wrapped
Alaskan squaw does. You involuntarily
pull up tho bear skin under your chin and I
cord up some more blubber in tho baco
burner. Then tho next instant the breeze
from Cuba strikes us and wo loath bear
skins and blubber, and sigh for yams and
bananas. But hardly have you yawned out
tho first uya'' of tho "yams," hardly have I
bleated out tho first "ba" of tho "bananas"
before your yams change to yawls and my
bananas switch off to boats or bilge water.
All just because tho wind has como up in tho
oast from tho Atlantic.
Oh, tho feeling of kinship that comes
swinging in on the spring breeze. In fact
I speak for myself, you can speak for your
self in fact, tho only time when I fool like
myself is when the breezes are all blowing
straight up or straight down. Even then I
am conscious that tho breezes must be com
ing from somewhere, good or bad, and I un
consciously adjust myself to the inhabitants
of that somowhoro sjood or bad.
It was a wild night. Tho wind blow and
blew, carrying with it dust and leaves and
scraps of paper and rofuso from tho street,
and now and then a fierce umbrella or a
rollicking hat. I held my hat on with both
hands, and plowed my way through tho
tumultuous ether. On a corner, where tho
wind blow up and down and from all four
points of tho compass at once, with every
possible combination and variation known to
street corners, a young lady passed me. Just
as wo came alongside, a sudden gust snatched
her sailor hat, and carried it wildly toward
mo. I sprang forward and grasped it with
a force that almost crushed tho flimsy straw.
Tho wind carried my own away into tho
night, but 1 had saved tho maiden's. I hold
it fast. Then there was a jerk. It was not
tho wind; it it was tho tug of a cord ! I
trembled. I relaxed my fingers and mut
tered "I bog your pardon;" and the wind
blew tho words to the maiden. There I
stood, with tho billowy other rolling over
my cold, perspiring brow, and gazod into
the darkness.
"I kind o' like jes' a loiterin' roun'
When the green gits back in the trees
Jes' potterin' roun' as I durn please
When the green, you know, gits back in the
trees."
Yes, just sauntering around on tho cam
pus looking for dandelions, just sitting down
on tho grasp, just not studying at all. Just
standing on tho steps watching tho boys play
tennis, and wondering how thoy can boar to
work so hard on such days. Just fooling
how warm it is, how pretty tho grass and the
trees look, how happy one might bo if one
were a bird. Just watching things grow,
just thinking not at all, just dreaming and
dreaming. Trying to forgot that ono must
work to live, trying to imagine how it would
bo to go sailing on ono of those fleecy
clouds, sailing on and on forever.
