red, and nothing
but bare earth is visible, but I think from the description that they
must be the lovely Madonna lilies of grandmother's Virginia garden that
made a procession from the tea-house quite down to the rose garden,
like a bevy of slender young girls in confirmation array. If so, they do
not take kindly to handling, and I have an indistinct remembrance of
some rather unusual time of year when it must be done if necessary.

Please let me know about this, for I can be of little use in the moving
of the evergreens and I want something to potter about in the garden.
There are two places for a lily bed, but I am uncertain which is best
until I hear from you. Either will have to be thoroughly renovated in
the matter of soil, so that I am anxious to start upon the right basis.
One of these spots is in full sun, with a slope toward the orchard; in
the other the sun is cut off after one o'clock, though there are no
overhanging branches; there is also a third place, a squashy spot down
in the bend of the old wall.

On our return, toward evening, we met _The Man from Everywhere_ driving
down from the reservoir ground toward Opal Farm, a pink-cheeked young
fellow of about twenty sharing the road wagon with him. As he has again
been away for a few days, we drew up to exchange greetings and _The Man_
said, rather aside, "I'm almost sorry that Larry fell from the skies to
help out your gardening, for here is a young German who has come from a
distance, with a note from a man I know well, applying for work at the
quarry; but there will be nothing suitable for him there for several
months, for he's rather above the average. He would have done very well
for you, as, though he speaks little English, I make out that his father
was an under-forester in the fatherland. As it is, I'm taking him to the
farm with me for the night and will try to think of how I may help him
on in the morning."

Instantly both Maria and I began to tell of Larry's defection in
different keys, the young man meanwhile keeping up a deferential and
most astonishing bowing and smiling.

Having secured the seal of Bart's approval, Meyer has been engaged, and
after to-day we must accustom our ears to a change from Larry's rich
brogue to the juicy explosiveness of German; and worse yet, I must rack
my brains for the mostly forgotten dialect of the schoolroom language
that is learned with such pain and so quickly forgotten.

I'm wondering very much about _T