Put on your fine dress of fresh rays without further delay, and show yourself at once on your balcony to announce my arrival." Upon which the sun had indeed set out, and was marching along as proud and haughty as some great lord of the court.

The swallows, returned from their Eastern pilgrimage, filled the air with their flight, the may whitened the bushes, the violets scented the woods, in which the birds were leaving their nests each with a roll of music under its wings.

It was spring indeed, the true spring of poets and lovers, and not the spring of the almanac maker--an ugly spring with a red nose and frozen fingers, which still keeps poor folk shivering at the chimney corner when the last ashes of the last log have long since burnt out.

The balmy breeze swept through the transparent atmosphere and scattered throughout the city the first scent of the surrounding country.

The rays of the sun, bright and warm, tapped at the windows.