Star wane, cobweb, brown-plumed bracken;
Morning laughs, with the frost in flower;
Duck flight, hound cry; wild grapes blacken.
Day leaps up at the amber hour.

Sun dark, snowcloud, eaves ice cumbered,
Gray sand piled on a carmine West;
Faint wing, flake dance; winds unnumbered
Swing the cradles where leaf-buds rest.

Wide light, bough flush, gold-fringed meadows,
Berries red in the rippled grass;
Stream song, nest note, dream deep shadows
Drawn back slowly for noon to pass.

CONTENTS

CHAP.PAGE
[I.][Faces of Janus][1]
[II.][A Woodland Valentine][7]
[III.][Ways of the March Hare][13]
[IV.][The April Moment][19]
[V.][The Crest of Spring][25]
[VI.][Hay Harvest Time][31]
[VII.][The Month of Yellow Flowers][37]
[VIII.][The Mood of August][43]
[IX.][Summer Pauses][48]
[X.][When the Oaks Wear Damson][54]
[XI.][November Traits][60]
[XII.][The Christmas Woods][66]
[XIII.][Landscapes Seen in Dreams][72]
[XIV.][Hiding Places][78]
[XV.][The Play of Leaves][84]
[XVI.][The Brown Frontier][90]
[XVII.][Far Altars][96]

ILLUSTRATIONS

[The Milky Way Revealed to Lonely Herdsmen]Frontispiece
[The Comforting Symbolism of Firelight at Play upon Clean Hearths]Facing p.4
[The Powers of Light]"10
[On the Topmost Boughs the Fairies Sleep]"26
[The Rejoicing Shout of Coming Summer]"28
[The Swooping Bat Darts Noiselessly]"34
[Now the Mountaineer’s Girl Hurries Indoors at Nightfall from the Hallooing Specter of the Wild Huntsman in the Clouds]"54
[Baldwins Mellow by Twelfth-night]"58
[December Acknowledges an Unpitying Fate—Anything May Happen]"68

MINSTREL WEATHER