rk
like tinder, and in a second the whole palm was in a blaze, making a
sort of heart to the furnace, as it had so much more substance than the
grass. For a moment or two the poor palm would bend and sway, tossing
its leaves like fiery plumes in the air, and then it was reduced to a
black stump, and the fire swept on up the hill.

The worst of it all was that we never knew when to leave off and come
home. We would pause for half an hour and boil our little kettle, and
have some tea and cake, and then go on again till quite late, getting
well scolded when we reached home at last dead-tired and as black as
little chimney-sweeps. One evening F---- was away on a visit of two
nights to a distant friend, and Alice and I determined on having
splendid burns in his absence; so we made our plans, and everything was
favourable, wind and all. We enjoyed ourselves very much, but if Mr.
U---- had not come out to look for us at ten o'clock at night, and
traced us by our blazing track, we should have had to camp out, for we
had no idea where we were, or that we had wandered so many miles from
home; nor had we any intention of returning just yet. We were very much
ashamed of ourselves upon that occasion, and took care to soften the
story considerably before it reached F----'s ears the next day.

However much I may rejoice at nor'-westers in the early spring as aids
to burning the run, I find them a great hindrance to my attempts at a
lawn. Twice have we had the ground carefully dug up and prepared; twice
has it been sown with the best English seed for the purpose, at some
considerable expense; then has come much toil on the part of F---- and
Mr. U---- with a heavy garden-roller; and the end of all the trouble
has been that a strong nor'-wester has blown both seed and soil away,
leaving only the hard un-dug (I wonder whether there is such a word)
ground. I could scarcely believe that it really was all "clean gone," as
children say, until a month or two after the first venture, when I had
been straining my eyes and exercising my imagination all in vain to
discover a blade where it ought to have been, but had remarked in one of
my walks an irregular patch of nice English grass about half a mile from
the house down the flat. I speculated for some time as to how it got
there, and at last F---- was roused from his reverie, and said coolly,
"Oh, that's your lawn!" When this happens twice, it really becomes very
aggravating: there are the croq