82 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



Virginia creeper cluster just outside, in bright 

 greens and dark, or cast their shifting shadows 

 on the glass, a dainty tracery of gray on silver. 



And at the altar there are flowers not 

 florist flowers, contracted for by the year, but 

 neighborhood flowers. There are Mrs. Cum- 

 mings s peonies she always has such beau 

 ties; and Mrs. Hiram Brown s roses no 

 body else has any of just that shade of yellow; 

 and Mary Lord s foxgloves and larkspur 

 what a wonder of yellow and white and blue ! 

 Each in its season, the flowers are full of per 

 sonal significance. The choir, too, is made up 

 of our friends. There is Hiram Brown, and 

 Jennie Sewall, and young Mrs. Harris, back 

 for three weeks to visit her mother, and little 

 Sally Winter, a shy new recruit, very pink 

 over her promotion. The singing is perhaps 

 not as finished as that of a paid quartette, 

 but it is full of life and sweetness, and it makes 

 a direct human appeal that the other often 

 misses. 



After the service people go out slowly, 

 waiting for this friend and that, and in the 

 vestibule and on the steps and in the church 

 yard they gather in groups. The men saunter 



