For thou, to Northern lands again, The glad and glorious sun dost bring, And thou hast joined the gentle train And wear’st the gentle name of Spring. And, in thy reign of blast and storm, Smiles many a long, bright sunny day, When the changed winds are soft and warm, And heaven puts on the blue of May. Then sing aloud the gushing rills And the full springs, from frosts set free, That, brightly leaping down the hills, Are just sent out to meet the sea. The year’s departing beauty hides Of wintry storms the sullen threat; But in thy sternest frown abides A look of kindly promise yet. Thou bring’st the hope of those calm skies, And that soft time of many showers, When the wide bloom, on earth that lies, Seems of a brighter world than ours. —Royal Arcanum. [Illustration: DOMESTIC SHEEP. (Ovis aries.) ADAPTED FROM A PAINTING BY FRED. WILLIAMSON.] THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. (_Ovis aries._) It was a little strip of fur which adorned a lady’s cloak. It was soft and warm and black and curly. The lady called it astrakhan, but the sheep, whose lamb met an early death that its pleasing fine coat might become the covering of someone in far away America, still lives on the steppes of the Far East. Her master and herder belong to one of the wandering tribes which roam about Central Asia. Had the lamb lived to maturity its beautiful fine coat would have changed to coarse hair, very unlike the wool of the sheep we find in America. It would have grown to a large size; it would have had short horns, a very short, flat tail, with great bunches of fat on the haunches at either side. There would have been among its companions some sheep entirely white; others white with black heads; but in its immediate family all would have been black throughout. Imagine the little lamb taking the journey across the Eastern continent! Should we follow it in its journey we would find many interesting varieties of its kind. In crossing Syria and Asia Minor we would find the curious, flat-tailed sheep; their tails are most remarkable to one unaccustomed to the sight, for they are long masses of fat, sometimes weighing forty or fifty pounds, and often trailing upon the ground. In this case they are frequently supported by little sledges to relieve the animal of its burden. It seems impossible to understand why these tails should grow to this inconvenient and enormous length, when other breeds near by have practically no tails at all.