For two hours, at least, I could ramble
undisturbed through my grounds, and much as I had once enjoyed these
grounds, they never afforded me the pleasure they gave me now. In
these happy mornings I felt all the life and spirits of a boy. I went
into my little field and stroked the sleek sides of my cows as they
nibbled the dewy grass. I even peeped through the barred window of
Sappho's box and fed her, as I had been used to doing, with bunches of
clover. I saw that the young chickens were flourishing. I went into
the garden and noted the growth of the vegetables, feeling glad that
she would have so many fine strawberries and tender peas.

I had not the slightest doubt that she was fond of flowers, and for her
sake now, as I used to do for my own sake, I visited the flower beds
and borders. Not far from the house there was a cluster of
old-fashioned pinks which I was sure were not doing very well. They
had been there too long, perhaps, and they looked stunted and weak. In
the miller's garden I had noticed great beds of these pinks, and I
asked his wife if I might have some, and she, considering them as mere
wild flowers, said I might have as many as I liked. She might have
thought I wanted simply the blossoms, but the next morning I went over
to my house with a basket filled with great matted masses of the plants
taken up with the roots and plenty of earth around them, and after
twenty minutes' work in my own bed of pinks, I had taken out all the
old plants and filled their places with fresh, luxuriant masses of buds
and leaves and blossoms. How glad she would be when she saw the fresh
life that had come to that flower-bed! With light footsteps I went
away, not feeling the weight of the basket filled with the old plants
and roots.

The summer grew and strengthened, and the sun rose earlier, but as that
had no effect upon the rising of the present inhabitants of my place,
it gave me more time for my morning pursuits. Gradually I constituted
myself the regular flower-gardener of the premises. How delightful the
work was, and how foolish I thought I had been never to think of doing
this thing for myself! but no doubt it was because I was doing it for
her that I found it so pleasant.

Once again I had seen Miss Vincent. It was in the afternoon, and I had
rowed myself to the upper part of the lake, where, with the high hills
and the trees on each side of me, I felt as if I were alone in the
world. Floating,