` I
  THE KENTUCKIAN. 144  
  The Vernal Touch. i
  STERN \Vinter meets his annual \\'aterloo the fourteenth of
 i February, and St. Valentine is the victor who bows t11e
I  hoary helmet of the Sovereign of the the Snows. For, what-
  ever the proclamation of the ground-hog and the goose·bone,
  it is then that Nature stirs from her slumbers and pushes back
  tl1e fringe of frost and whispers to the waiting soul a prophecy I
 I of spring. The season has a softness in harmony with its sen-
 j timent, and the day of dainty favors comes not in vain either V
  to the birds or to those not less callow though nnfeathered
  creatures whom we know as boys and girls. ’l`he projected I `
  influence of the spring turns backward, as it were. and fills .
  their blood with an anticipated warmth that has not yet come
  to vegetation; for the unmistakable thrill that pervades the
  earth when the old world turns over on his axis and begins
  his fresh dreams has not yet made the ground fecund or
  coaxed the shrubs and vines to let their little buds venture
 · forth in unequal battle with the nipping air. '
  And while the birds are mating and Nature murmurs her
  desires, tl1e boys and girls seein to know, sonnehow, that the
  period of sweet passion is upon ns: for they feel tl1e spring-
  tide dwelling in their veins before the vine’s vegetation dares
  to give visible sign of the snnnner’s coming. lt happens that
 ii` my domicile is directly on the line which these young things
  V l1lll$l l[‘U.\`(fl-SC Ul] LllCll. \\'tl}' l.t>1lIl