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Spring was slow in unfolding For the last feeeks it had been

steadily fine frosty weather In the daytiht there were even seven degrees of frost There

was such a frozen surface on the snow that they drove the wagons

anywhere off the roads Easter came in the snow Then all of a

sudden, on Easter Monday, a ind sprang up, storhts the war rain fell in strea brooded over the land as though hiding the

ht in

nature Behind the fog there was the flowing of water, the

cracking and floating of ice, the swift rush of turbid, foa, the fog

parted, the stor crests of

cloud, the sky cleared, and the real spring had co the sun rose brilliant and quickly wore away the thin

layer of ice that covered the water, and all the war with the stearass looked greener, and the young grass thrust up its

tiny blades; the buds of the guelder-rose and of the currant and

the sticky birch-buds were swollen with sap, and an exploring bee

was huolden blossoms that studded the

Larks trilled unseen above the velvety green fields and the

ice-covered stubble-land; peeailed over the low lands and

h

across the sky uttering their spring calls The cattle, bald in

patches where the new hair had not grown yet, lowed in the

pastures; the bowlegged la

paths, covered

with the prints of bare feet There was a merry chatter of

peasant wo of axes

in the yard, where the peasants were repairing ploughs and

harrows The real spring had come