Spring had come. the people moving to and fro were gaily chattering. behind the fences of the little gardens, the buds on the trees were swelling, and their branches rustled faintly in the fresh breeze. youth and gladness were in the sky and on the earth and in the heart of man. without the word spring in the first sentence of the paragraph cited, how would you know the time of year in which the story takes place? buds on the trees were swelling. branches rustled faintly in the fresh breeze. there were fences.