No one knows how she looks, because no one has ever seen her. But all long for her, and thank her and bless her. She goes through the wood and touches the flowers and trees, and at once they burst out. She goes through the cattle-stalls and unties the beasts, and lets them out on to the field. She goes straight into the hearts of men and fills them with gladness. She makes it hard for the best boy to sit still on his form at school, and she is the cause of a terrible number of mistakes in the copy-books. But she does not do all this at once. Night after night she plies her task, and she comes first to him who longs for her most. So it happened that on the very night of her coming she went straight to the anemones, who stood in their green kerchiefs and didn't know how to hold out any longer. And one, two, three! there they stood in their newly-ironed white collars, and looked so fresh and so pretty that the starlings sang their prettiest songs out of sheer joy in them. "Ah, how sweet it is here!" said the anemones. "How warm the sun is, and how the birds sing! It is a thousand times better than last year." But they said the same thing every year, so one needn't take any account of it. There were many others who were quite beside themselves when they saw the anemones had come out. One was a schoolboy who wanted to have his summer holidays at once; and another was the beech tree, who felt exceedingly put out. "Aren't you coming soon to me, my Lady Spring?" he said. "I am a much more important person than those silly anemones, and I can't really hold in my buds much longer." "I am coming, I am coming," answered my Lady Spring. "But you must give me a little time." She went on her way through the wood, and at every step many and many an anemone burst into flower. They stood in crowds round the roots of the birch tree, and bashfully bowed their round heads to the earth. "Look up," said my Lady Spring, "and rejoice in God's bright sunshine. Your life is short, so you must enjoy it while you have it." The anemones did as she told them. They stretched and strained, and spread their white petals to all sides, to drink as much sunshine as they could. They pushed their heads against one another, and twined their stalks together, and laughed, and were immensely happy. "Now I can wait no longer," said the beech, and he burst into leaf. Leaf after leaf crept forth from its green sheath and waved in the wind. The great tree made a green arch, like a mighty roof over the earth. "Dear me, is it already evening?" asked the anemones, who noticed that it had grown quite dark. "No; it is Death," said my Lady Spring. "Now _your_ time is over. It happens to you just as it happens to all that is best on earth. Everything in turn must spring to life, and bloom, and die." "Die?" cried some little anemones. "Must we die already?" And some of the big ones grew quite red in the face in their terror and vexation.