His first attempts, though displaying both originality and power, were received with a contemptuous disdain, as cold and repulsive as the penury and neglect which blighted the budding of his youth.

I love to cleave to the good, and to hold out a helping hand to encourage the tender budding of grace, and for the good to overcome the evil.

An artist, meeting her musing on a canal-bridge one day, went home and painted a May-flower budding in February.

Many pilgrims there were who came to worship at the shrine of St. Joseph; to drink from the holy well which sprang from the foot of Chalice Hill where the Holy Cup lay buried; and to watch the budding of the mystic thorn, which, year after year, when the snows of Christmas covered the hills, put forth its holy blossoms, "a symbol of God's promise, care and love.