s with
floral and arboreal gifts. During that unusually warm spell we had
about two months ago there was scarcely an hour of the day that a
wheelbarrow or a man servant or both did not arrive bearing lilac
sprouts from the Leets, or Japanese ivy slips from the Sissons, or
peonies from the old Doller homestead, or mignonette from Mrs. Roth, or
dahlias from Mrs. Knox, or marigolds from the Baylors, or pansies from
the Haynes, or tulip bulbs from Mrs. Redd, or something or another from
somebody else.

You can depend upon it that all this kept me wondrously busy. I broke
four trowels and raised a dozen ugly blisters on my right hand in my
attempt to get these tender tokens of friendship transplanted before
they withered. One day Mrs. Baylor and Mrs. Rush took me to a
neighboring greenhouse with them; they wanted to purchase some vines to
train over their front porches. The man at the greenhouse showed me an
innumerable assortment of beautiful rose-bushes, which I bought in the
fond delusion that they would vastly embellish our front lawn. I
recall the pride with which I told Alice and Adah that I guessed I had
purchased enough flowers to fill the whole yard. I recall also the
sense of humiliation I experienced when, after that innumerable
assortment had been set out in the yard, I discovered that there was
not enough of them to make an impression even upon the most susceptible
eye.

I am not yet quite sure whether neighbor Macleod was in earnest or
whether he meant it in fun when he sent us a magnificent thistle, with
the suggestion that we plant it in our lawn. But, out of respect to
neighbor Macleod's patriotism as a loyal son of Caledonia, I did plant
the thistle in amiable compliance with my friend's suggestion. Other
neighbors protested against this, but I imputed their objections to
that natural feeling of jealousy which is too likely to manifest itself
when the interests of other neighbors are involved. The thistle was an
uncommonly large and active one, and I suffered somewhat from its teeth
before I finally got it comfortably located in a patch of succulent
turf under one of our willow-trees.

The unusually warm spell to which I have referred was followed (as you
will doubtless recollect), by a period of bitterly cold weather. With
an anguish which I am utterly incapable of describing, I saw my
marigolds and mignonette and roses and peonies and dahlias and pansies
and other leafy pets wither and droop