THE HEART' S-EASE. 55 



ed intensity. December came and went, leaving 

 us many a bright rose-bud, intermixed with our 

 holly-boughs ; January laid no very severe finger 

 on them, though some rough easterly blasts scatter- 

 ed a few of their opening petals ; but gave with 

 the accustomed snow-drop, fair primroses, and 

 fragrant violets, to laugh audacious defiance of the 

 menaced blights. February blazed upon us in a 

 flood of unwonted brightness, showering in our 

 path such blossoms as rarely peep forth till late 

 in Spring. Preparations were in forwardness for 

 sending northward in quest of ice ; but they were 

 suspended, in the anxious hope that such an un- 

 natural state of things w r ould soon give place to 

 weather less portentous, less fraught with disap- 

 pointment to the gourmand. Alas for the packer^ 

 of fish, and coolers of wine and congealers of 

 cream ! February went smiling out, and March, 

 blustering March, came laughing in, arrayed in 

 such a chaplet as he had scarcely ever before 

 stolen. My garden is of moderate size, in the 

 articles of sun and shade enjoying no peculiar ad- 

 vantages above its neighbours ; nor enriched by a 

 higher degree of cultivation ; yet within a small 

 space of this garden, I counted, on the 6th of 

 March, eighteen varieties of flowers in full beauty, 

 while the fruit-trees put forth their buds in rich 

 profusion, and the birds proclaimed a very different 

 story from that which had emanated from the 



