Several country places announce that swallows are already putting in an appearance, giving promise of an early spring.

New hope to furred and feathered things
   Comes winging down the sky; 
A message on the soaring wings
To simple creatures promise brings 
Of simple pleasures nigh. 
   Earth stirs from sleep and smiles again 
For all her folk—save only men. 

Lords of creation, only these, 
   Weighted with man-made ills 
Stir not with beasts and birds and trees, 
When spring, with blossoms at her knees, 
Stands tip-toe on the hills; 
   But mark, with sad, lack-lustre eyes 
Her feathered heralds in the skies.
 
Yet is there not a promise here 
   Even for such as we -— 
When minds, like springtime skies, grow clear, 
When doubts, with folly, disappear. 
And thro' simplicity, 
   Old truths grow plain before our eyes 
As swallows winging down the skies.

"Den"
Herald, 29 July 1931
and
Advertiser and Register, 1 August 1931, p4