"You are waking the sleepers in their dens to-day?
Well, there's nothing like waiting until you have a sure thing.

The bluebirds broke the trail for the feathered folk the twenty-fourth of February.
The sap oozed from the maples about the same time for the trees.

The very first skunk cabbage was up quite a month ago to signal other plants to come on, and now you are rousing the furred folk.

I'll write this down in my records----'When the earliest bluebird sings, when the sap wets the maples, when the skunk cabbage flowers, and the first striped squirrel barks, why then, it is spring!'" He bent to his task and as he worked closer the water he noticed sweet-flag leaves waving two inches tall beneath the surface.
"Great day!" he cried.

"There you are making signs, too! And right! Of course! Nature is always right.