The Rescue of an Old Place 



its winter sleep, but at last it begins to 

 star itself over with blossoms of white 

 Saxifrage, and anon it grows purple \vith 

 Bird's-foot Violets, sending out in the sun- 

 shine that soft, fleeting perfume which is 

 a hint of the riper fragrance of their Eng- 

 lish cousins. 



At this season, too, the exquisite wild 

 Columbine decks it with earrings of coral 

 and gold, which the country children call 

 meeting-houses from their steeple-shaped 

 horns, and over it the all-pervading Daisy 

 waves its white and yellow blossoms stur- 

 dily in the wind, while the wild briers put 

 forth their roses, and the Dog's-bane its 

 fragrant cymes, till the Goldenrods and 

 Asters come at last to hide its barrenness 

 with their royal splendor. And all the 

 while there are short, thin grasses, of ten- 

 der greens and browns, clothing it humbly, 

 while spots of vivid emerald moss indicate 

 the presence of hidden rivulets that feed 

 a living spring that lies at its foot. 



In this spring is the possibility of a 



water garden, of which there is already a 



beginning. All summer long you can see 



shining there the blue eyes of great For- 



26 



