MAY 75 



but they will not last ; another day or two 

 and the fruit will be set, and we shall see 

 twin cherries swelling greenly all over each 

 long length of blossomed bough. 



Either to-day, or on May-day, one ought 

 to see the fairies, according to the old 

 Scottish legends 1 No fairies appeared 

 this time, but I saw a good deal between 

 eight and nine, looking from the broad 

 walk, upon our old kitchen garden walls, 

 bright with the eastern sun. How shall 

 the charm of these old brick walls be 

 described? Words could never paint it. 

 In the clear glow of morning light, the reds 

 are so delicately pure and warm, and they 

 are mottled with such varied greys and 

 many-tinted yellows. There are stout old 

 buttresses, too, mossed and ferny, and grey 

 with eld. Ancient rugged pear trees grow 

 up against it,' and their outstretched 

 knotted old limbs are set now with knots of 

 flowers, and young, tender leaves, and the 

 half-transparent shadow of every flower 

 and leaf lies still, or trembles on the wall. 

 One of these pear trees, quite worn out 

 and decayed with age, had been cleared 



