204 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



tiers, and speedily, after the example of other 

 colonists, they civilized all the former inhabitants 

 from off the face of the earth. Nor were they 

 content with the absolute occupation of that por- 

 tion of my grounds in which they were first 

 planted. The Climbing Roses peeped over the 

 wall on one side, and the tall Standards looked 

 over the yew hedge on the other, and strongly 

 urged upon their crowded brethren beneath (as 

 high and prosperous ones had urged before upon 

 their poorer kinsfolk, pressing them too closely) 

 an exodus to other diggings, to ** fields fresh and 

 pastures new." So there was a congress of the 

 great military chiefs, Brennus (Hybrid China), 

 Scipio (Gallica), Marechal Bugeaud (Tea), Duke 

 of Cambridge (Damask), Tippoo Saib (Gallica), 

 Generals Allard, Jacqueminot, Kleber, and Wash- 

 ington (all Hybrid Chinas), Colonel Coombes, 

 Captain Sisolet, etc.; and their counsel, like 

 Moloch's, was for open war. They said it was ex- 

 pedient to readjust their boundaries ; and we know 

 pretty well by this time that this means an im- 

 mediate raid upon the property which adjoins 

 their own. They discovered that they had been 

 for years grossly insulted by their neighbors 

 (Aimee Vibert was almost sure that a young 

 potato had winked his eye at her), and the time 



