ch, one foine night,
jest before the last time Mister Blake went off fer good, they was sat
there some toime, so still that, says I to meself, 'When they do foind
spach, it'll be something worth hearing!'

"'Do I annoy you by staying here? Would you prefer I went elsewhere?'
says he, and well I moind the words, for Oi thought an offer was on the
road, and as 'twas the nearest I'd been to wan, small wonder I got
excoited! Then Miss Marie spoke up, smooth as a knife cutting ice
cream,--'To speak frankly,' says she, 'you do not exactly annoy me, but
I'd much rather you went elsewhere!' Och, but it broke me heart, the
sound of it!"

* * * * *

LIST OF FLOWER COMBINATIONS FOR THE TABLE FROM BARBARA'S _GARDEN BOKE_

HEAVILY SCENTED FLOWERS, SUCH AS HYACINTHS, LEMON AND AURATUM LILIES,
POLYANTHUS NARCISSUS, MAGNOLIAS, LILACS, AND THE LIKE, SHOULD BE
AVOIDED.

Snowdrops and pussy-willows.
Hepaticas and moss.
Spice-bush and shad-bush sprays.
Trailing arbutus and sweet, white garden violets.
Double daffodils and willow sprays.
Crocus buds and moss.
Blue garden scillas and wild white saxifrage.
Black-birch catkins and wind-flowers.
Plants of the various wild violets, according to season, arranged
in an earthen pan with a moss or bark covering.
Old-fashioned myrtle, with its glossy leaves, and single narcissus,
or English primroses.
Bleeding-heart and young ferns.
English border primroses in small rose bowls.
Lilies-of-the-valley, with plenty of their own leaves, and poets'
narcissus.
Tulip-tree flowers and leaves.
The wild red-and-gold columbine with young white-birch sprays.
Pinxter flower and the New York or wood fern.
Jack-in-the-pulpit with its own leaves, in a bark or moss
covered jar.
Pink moccasin-flowers with ferns, in bark-covered jar.
Pansies with ivy or laurel leaves, arranged in narrow dishes to
form a parterre about a central mirror.
Iceland poppies with small ferns or grasses.
May pinks and forget-me-nots.
Blue larkspurs and deutzia (always put white with blue flowers).
Peonies with evergreen ferns, in a central jar.
Sweet-william, arranged in separate colours for parterre effect
or in a large blue-and-white bowl, with graceful sprays of
honeysuckle flowers.
Wild roses with plenty of buds and foliage, in blue-and-white
bowls.
Roses in large sprays with branches of