247 



THE AUCUBA AND THE LILY. 



gj 1 DO not know how it is you are so different to others in your ways and 

 mode of doing," said a Lilium Candidum to a fine Aucuba, as they 

 stood together in an old English garden. "I am so ashamed of you, for 

 no sooner is the place clearrd up and all around pleasant to look at, 

 rich brown loam below, and bright blue sky above, than down you come 

 with your heavy dead leaves, enough to upset one completely. Why cannot you 

 cast your old dress in the autumn as others do? it might then be of service in keeping 

 something warm." 



" Why, you see, Lady Lily, my dress has to be worn much longer than yours, 

 more than one or two summers, and even then I like to be donning the new before 

 I part with the old. Though I am broad and high, thick in build, and heavy in 

 foliage, yet I am rather delicate by nature : extremes do not suit me. In the 

 shortening days of November, when the cold comes from the north, and our com- 

 panions, the Birches and Sycamores, are so thinly clad, I tremble lest my garments 

 should fall away too. I fear the cold so much ; I cannot bear many degrees of trust. 

 Woe to me if I must face the winter bereft of all covering — -my beauty would soon 

 be lost." 



"Beauty, indeed! I wonder where you have it?" said the Lily, opening 

 wider and wider her snow-white petals until they were in danger of breaking away. 

 "I have stood looking at you for yeai - s, and could not see it ; you are always the 

 same, perhaps a little duller in the winter — a shapeless, graceless thing at best." 



"All do not think so," replied the Aucuba ; " to the cultivated eye my beauty 

 is ever present, never more so than when in winter, my large, smooth, richly-painted, 

 and finely-polished leaves grace some pleasant lawn." 



" You are very disagreeable at this season, anyhow. I have often heard the 

 gardeners abuse you, as a dirty, untidy shrub, best fitted for growth in the wild 

 woods." 



" Yet they are glad of me all the same. In the dark flowerless months they 

 visit me much too freely with their sharp knives. Ah me ! what fine branches 

 they cut away for mimic trees ; I might grieve over it, but, but then it is a good 

 thing to be of use if one has no beauty." 



" Beauty or no beauty, I wish my home had not been placed so near to you. 

 My refined sense of neatness and order is outraged every day. When I put on 

 my best appearance, I think, surely, you put on your worst. There you are 

 again, a whole shower of dark, heavy leaves at my feet, coming down with such a 

 thud, that my poor bulb takes long to recover." 



"Don't shake yourself so violently, Lady Candidum, lest your rich colour should 

 drop upon your white dress and stain its purity. After all, I am your best friend, 

 though you are unwilling to think so, my compact form and dense foliage enhances 

 your beauty ; what would you be, growing out on a common without shade, or 

 shelter, or contrast, I wonder ? " 



"I could very well do without you — you are nothing to me," replied the Lily, 

 as she folded herself up for the night ; " you only hide from me the morning sky and 

 the early sunshine." 



Nest morning a cold east wind was blowing over the English garden, the Syca- 

 mores turned the under side of their branches to meet the storm, and the Birch trees 

 murmured sadly as they swayed to and fro, and the poor Aucuba held to its 

 withering leaves as though unwilling to part with the least bit of warmth or shelter 

 they could afford to its tender growth. And the Lilium Candidum looked out into 

 the changed world and sighed for the peerless purity of its white blooms, which could 

 not easily outlive such a storm. " How do you feel now ?" said the Aucuba 

 bitterly; "ashamed of your companion ? If you stood where I do, there would 

 not be a patch of your white dress which would not be changed to a grey rag 

 before night. You are an ingrate — who sheltered you through the long winter, 

 and made a ray ef warmth and comfort over the snowy ground t" 



" I wish I were nearer to you." 



" So you will be when the summer comes again, I am growing out to you ; but 

 my leaves will tumble down just as heavily as you think they do now. I cannot 

 change." Claude. 



