ll."

CHAPTER VII.

Whanne that April with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veine in swiche licour,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eke with his sote brethe,
Enspired hath in every holt and hethe
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foules maken melodie
That sleepen all night with open eye,
So pricketh hem nature in hir corages;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken strange strondes,
To servo halwes couthe in sondry londes.

_Prologue to Canterbury Tales_.

"Why, _Ma belle_, you are an indomitable excursionist!" exclaimed Lord
Strathern one evening, when the botanical party, after a hard day's
work in pleasure-hunting, returned to a late dinner at headquarters.
"I wonder Mrs. Shortridge is not worn out in accompanying you."

"I take it easily, my Lord," said Mrs. Shortridge, "keeping the
broadest and smoothest path I can find, like the wicked in Scripture,
while Lady Mabel rambles about on either hand, having, I think, a
liking for rough ground. Like the mountain goat, if she will forgive
the comparison, she prefers the crag to the plain. If your Lordship
saw the hardihood with which she puts herself into all sorts of
perilous situations, until, at times, it needs all the aid Colonel
L'Isle can give to extricate her, I fear you would put a stop to our
jaunts."

"As yet my wardrobe has been the only sufferer," said Lady Mabel. "I
have just taken off the third dress I have damaged past remedy."

"If you had been a boy, _Ma belle_, instead of a girl, you would have
made a rare sportsman!"

"A sportsman, indeed! By this time I would have held a commission in
his Majesty's service. Why, papa, I am a year older than ensign Wade,
have almost as much beard to my chin, and, but for my sex, would make
quite as good a soldier."

"I am content, however, to have you as you are, and would not exchange
you for a regiment of the best boys in England."

"Better one daughter than a thousand sons," said Lady Mabel, "for they
would make a cumbersome family."

"You are a cumbersome baggage yourself," said Lord Strathern. "Just
see the endless litter of flowers, leaves, yea, branches of trees,
with which you cumber the house. We will have to apply to the
quartermaster for the use of a returning supply-train to co