THEIR GARDEN VACATION 51 



is an imposition upon herself, her parents, and the pub- 

 lic at large. To leave her with Bart's mother, whose 

 forte is Scotch crossed with Pennsylvania Dutch dis- 

 cipline, will probably be to find on her return that she 

 has developed a quaking fear of the dark ; while, if she 

 goes to my mother, bless her ! who has the beautiful 

 and soothing Southern genius for doing the most com- 

 fortable thing for the moment, regardless of conse- 

 quences, the Infant for months after will expect to be 

 sung to sleep, my hand cuddled against her cheek, until 

 I develop laryngitis from continued vocal struggles 

 with 'Ole Uncle Ned,' 'Down in de Cane Brake,' 

 and ' De Possum and de Coon.' 



" This mental and verbal struggle was brought to an 

 end yesterday by The Man from Everywhere. Do you 

 remember, that was the title that we gave Ross Blake, 

 the engineer, two summers ago, when you and Evan 

 visited us, because he was continually turning up and al- 

 ways from some new quarter? Just now he has been 

 put in charge of the construction of the reservoir 

 that is to do away with our beloved piece of wild- 

 flower river woods in the valley below Three Brothers 

 Hills. 



" As usual he turned up unexpectedly with Bartram 

 Saturday afternoon and 'made camp,' as a matter of 



