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was the vinca or periwinkle, and through the underbrush that kept 

 alive the spirit of the wild trailed the arbutus, which in its place and 

 season has no rival. 



OUR HORSE HOME. 



Four-Footed Friends. 



It would be difficult to say which of the four-footed friends 

 of Hillcrest was deepest in our affections. Topsy, that mare of 

 mares, whose quick, spirited step night or day heralded her coming, 

 was always under voice control with us, but a stranger could not 

 curb her speed indeed, she often seemed to the onlooker to be 

 running away, and more than one well disposed person tried to 

 stop her and save ( ?) the driver's life. Hills made no difference; for 

 nine years she mounted them at top speed, and at one time in midnight 

 darkness leaped a deep trench in the highway, overturning barriers 

 of planks and barrels, and kept on, with writer, gig and its contents 

 uninjured, emphasizing the fact that spirited and intelligent horses 

 are often safer drivers than the type represented by stupid, plodding 

 Peggoty who gave us a gig tumble we remembered for many a day. 



In one field after a half night's searching we found our prize 

 collie, Bobbie Burns, brought to us from Edinburgh. He had 

 been deliberately murdered by some miscreant neighborly gossip 

 suspicioned the offender who fed him with a piece of meat stuffed 

 with pounded glass, as discovered by our veterinary at the autopsy. 



