204 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



have been treated with profound respect, their 

 kindly tradition about the garden remains 

 unbroken ; while rare and strange visitants 

 arrive unexpectedly, and, liking the looks of 

 the place, are gracious enough to stay. 



"Made before the wind was made," no 

 creatures are more captivating than the birds ; 

 and their little ways are endlessly diverting 

 to watch. Each resident bird has his own 

 well-defined beat, and woe to the intruder. 

 There is the front-door robin, the back-door 

 robin, and the orchard robin, who also reigns 

 supreme over the croquet-ground and one 

 Rose bed. The back-door robin takes the 

 eastern hedge from the back-yard down to 

 the kitchen garden, and spends the greater 

 part of his time just now, as his building has 

 not actually begun, in serenading the maids 

 outside the kitchen door. His kingdom joins 

 that of the front-door robin, at the big Rose 

 arch of Rubin and Bennefs Seedling, opposite 

 the dining-room on the north of the house. 

 The front-door robin, my very particular 

 friend (for we hold continual converse through 



