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Show Dadd-qs t'7' Fair "Tale THE BACKWARD SPRING Now Mistress Springtime had beei very busy making big preparation- l Km Hiding Her Face. She had conn along to the north ern, parts of thi country, bringin: with her manj dresses of pah green and hat; and trimmings ant decorat ions o : blossoms nnc spring flowers. She had un packed a little a1 a time so as noi to get too tlrec unpacking. Besides she had so much in hei springtime trunks and she knew how everyone would want to see her costumes cos-tumes a little slowly. Of course, in time, she became a bit excited over all the "Ahs" and "Ohs" that greeted her and she showed people peo-ple more and more of her glories. This time she became so interested in all the first places where she had stopped that she neglected for a long, long time a number of other places. In fact she had been a little late about arriving in a number of spots. Feople said : "It is a backward spring." And do you know that made Mistress Mis-tress Springtime feel a little shy? Yes, she felt that the people, even though they would want to see her arrive, would make her feel slightly uncomfortable. Just as a shy person feels even more shy before those who are always al-ways saying: "Now don't be shy, my dear ; we're all going to be good friends," so did Mistress Springtime feet when she heard them call her backward. She felt it would be cold where they were and that the chill in the air and their cold voices when they said that spring was backward would be more than she could endure until there really real-ly was warmer weather. So she kept putting it off and people peo-ple said again and again: "Spring is backward." Well, at last she know she must visit these people for if she didn't summer would come right along and there really would be no spring at all. She didn't want it that way. She didn't want them to say that really there had been no spring at ail and that they had had summer right after winter. So she started to visit these places. But it still did seem chilly. She felt backward since they had said Sti. She found herself hiding her face behind her green cloak and pulling down her hat of buds so that the buds felt shy, too, and did not feel like ! opening into flowers, as they usually do, you know, right on her hat. Oh, it was hard to bo a high-spirited spring when she had been told she was backward and when she bad felt backward, too. I Yes, she was shy, quite, quite shy. But suddenly she decided that she ' would not let people make her feel ' so shy. j There was noth- ing she should feel shy about, i She w n u I il be I ready to do what ; she could do. i She would not ! hide behind her ! cape or keep the I buds from bursting burst-ing info bloom. ! She flung her ( cape from her and danced and played and the buds opened their S shy, sleepy eyes j to see w hat Spring was doing'. Flung Her Cape, j She laughed right in the very face ! of old Mr. Sun so that he roared with delight. And the people said : "Well, spring was backward, but ' cerfaii'.iy we have had a beautiful spring, even though a short one, be-fore be-fore summer actually came." j |