  The earth receives light from the sun, and completes its course through the heavens once a year. Each year brings Spring with her garlands of flowers, Summer—golden Summer—with her sheaves of sunlit grain, Bas-relief of a man offering an apple to one of two women who are harvesting wheat A.B. Thorwaldsen. Summer. Every year there is the same order of the seasons. Therefore man knows when to plant the tiny seeds, when the harvests and fruits will ripen, and what provision to make for the cold but merry winter. Bas-relief of a man returning, from hunting and foraging, to his wife and infant A.B. Thorwaldsen. Autumn. Just as little children, tired with play, and men who work all day, must have the night for sleep and rest, so Mother Earth, who plays and works so gaily from March to October, must have the winter season for rest. Then she covers herself with a mantle of snow, and sings a sleepy lullaby song. Each of the seasons has three months to attend her. Bas-relief of an old man and a cat sitting as an elderly woman lights a lamp A.B. Thorwaldsen. Winter. Spring, clad in dainty green, has March with cleansing winds, changeable April with sunshine and rain, and tender May with the fragrant flowers. Summer, in her golden dress, has June, July, and August to attend her. Autumn, with September, October, and November, comes with her hands filled with baskets of fruit. Can you compare the passing of the year and the life of man? Childhood, the springtime of life, is the time for play and dance and merry song, the time to make the body supple and strong. When the body is strong and the mind has been trained, comes the summer time of work—hard work in all the fields of labor, that the harvest may not fail. In the autumn of life, when the labor of the summer ripens into fruit, how pleasant to reap the reward of work! Then slowly come the snowy hair and the winter of life, when we sit by the fire and tell the story of our battles, our struggles, our defeats, and our victories. Each season of the year has its pleasures and its tasks, and so has each season of life. A youth of cheerful labor and study brings its own reward of a well-prepared and happy adult life. Then we can repeat Browning’s cheering words,— “Grow old along with me! The best of life is yet to be, The last for which the first is made.” |
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