But, on the other hand, spring is the time when your neighbor borrows your lawn-mower and keeps it till he is ready to borrow your snow-shovel. In the spring all Nature seems to smile, especially in the Third Reader, and the little flowers go gaily skipping over hill and dale. The grass pops up, the boys begin fighting regularly, the birds warble all the day long in the leafy boughs, and the book-agent comes hurriedly up the road with a zealous but firm dog appended to his pants. About this time you feel achy and itchy and stretchy and gappy, and so forth, all of which is a sign that you’ve got the spring fever. Some men have the spring fever all the year round. Then they join all the lodges they can squeeze into, and owe everybody, and talk about the workingman needing his beer on Sunday.
This is all I know about spring, and most of it is what Uncle Bill told me.
Old Saws Filed New
“VICE is contagious”—and so few of us have been vaccinated!
“A man must keep his mouth open a long time before a roast pigeon flies into it”—but the chances are worse if he keeps it shut.
“Associate with men of good judgment”—if their good judgment will permit.
“Duty is a power which rises with us in the morning and goes to rest with us in the evening”—or even earlier in the day.