the greenest mosses — now red-brown in tlie sun-shine, now decked with thousands of fanciful fairy bells or 

 extinguisher cajjs, and on those large long straws, which the sparrows loosened in their rummage for grains 

 of corn left behind, grow the small delicate tufts of v4^ari«* cauUcinalis, clasping the straws by their woolly 

 stems ; as fantastic and graceful as if Titania herself had created them to ornament her bower. 



And so tliTough Hfe, good reader, may it be with thee ; if the barn must be there, make the most of 

 the thatch. 



" But opposite me is an old wall : I should not mind if I had your thatch with the pretty things on 

 it." And if I had your bricks, I should study the wonderful " weather stains," as the artist calls them, 

 Leprarias, &c., they are. 



There are higher considerations than mere optimism to teach dutiful resignation, but that will stand 

 in good stead to strengthen patience and content. 



