al monument is a cedar of Lebanon which she set in
the manner described above. The cedar tops the brow of a little hill
crossing the grounds. She carried two slips from Ohio, where they were
given to her by a man who had brought the trees as tiny things from the
holy Land. She planted both in this way, one in her dooryard and one in
her cemetery. The tree on the hill stands thirty feet tall now, topping
all others, and has a trunk two feet in circumference.

Mrs. Porter's mother was of Dutch extraction, and like all Dutch women
she worked her special magic with bulbs, which she favoured above other
flowers. Tulips, daffodils, star flowers, lilies, dahlias, little
bright hyacinths, that she called "blue bells," she dearly loved. From
these she distilled exquisite perfume by putting clusters, & time of
perfect bloom, in bowls lined with freshly made, unsalted butter,
covering them closely, and cutting the few drops of extract thus
obtained with alcohol. "She could do more different things," says the
author, "and finish them all in a greater degree of perfection than any
other woman I have ever known. If I were limited to one adjective in
describing her, 'capable' would be the word."

The author's father was descended from a long line of ancestors of
British blood. He was named for, and traced his origin to, that first
Mark Stratton who lived in New York, married the famous beauty, Anne
Hutchinson, and settled on Stratton Island, afterward corrupted to
Staten, according to family tradition. From that point back for
generations across the sea he followed his line to the family of
Strattons of which the Earl of Northbrooke is the present head. To his
British traditions and the customs of his family, Mark Stratton clung
with rigid tenacity, never swerving from his course a particle under
the influence of environment or association. All his ideas were
clear-cut; no man could influence him against his better judgment. He
believed in God, in courtesy, in honour, and cleanliness, in beauty,
and in education. He used to say that he would rather see a child of
his the author of a book of which he could be proud, than on the throne
of England, which was the strongest way he knew to express himself. His
very first earnings he spent for a book; when other men rested, he
read; all his life he was a student of extraordinarily tenacious
memory. He especially loved history: Rollands, Wilson's Outlines, Hume,
Macauley, Gibbon, Prescott, a