gardens and the woodland Dutchman's breeches. It grows in great
strings fourteen or fifteen feet in length and seems as trainable as
smilax or the asparagus vine. Here are also woody trailers of moonseed,
with its minute white flowers in the axils of leaves that might pass at
first glance for one of the many varieties of wild grapes; the hyacinth
bean, with its deliciously fragrant chocolate flowers tinged with
violet, that is so kind in covering the unsightly underbrush of damp
places. And here, first, last, and always, come the wild grapes, showing
so many types of leaf and fruit, from the early ripening summer grape of
the high-climbing habit, having the most typical leaf and thin-skinned,
purple berries, that have fathered so many cultivated varieties; the
frost grape, with its coarsely-toothed, rather heart-shaped, pointed
leaf and small black berries, that are uneatable until after frost (and
rather horrid even then); to the riverside grape of the glossy leaf,
fragrant blossoms and fruit.

One thing must be remembered concerning wild grapes: they should be
planted, if in the open sunlight, where they will be conspicuous up to
late summer only, as soon after this time the leaves begin to grow
rusty, while those in moist and partly-shady places hold their own. I
think this contrast was borne in upon me by watching a mass of
grape-vines upon a tumble-down wall that we pass on our way to the
river woods. In August the leaves began to brown and curl at the edges,
while similar vines in the cool lane shade were still green and growing.
So you see, Mrs. Evan, that, in addition to our other treasure-trove, we
are prepared to start a free vinery as well, and as our lucky star seems
to be both of morning and evening and hangs a long while in the sky,
Meyer, Larry's successor, we find, has enough of a labourer's skill at
post setting and a carpenter's eye and hand at making an angled arch
(this isn't the right term, but you know what I mean), so that we have
not had to pause in our improvements owing to Amos Opie's rheumatic
illness.

Not that I think the old man _very_ ill, and I believe he could get
about more if he wished, for when I went down to see him this morning,
he seemed to have something on his mind, and with but little urging he
told me his dilemma. Both _The Man from Everywhere_ and Maria Maxwell
have made him good offers for his farm, _The Man's_ being the first! Now
he had fully determined to sell to _The Ma