VI 

 THEIR FORTUNATE ESCAPE 



CONCERNING EVERGREENS AND HENS 

 (Mary Penrose to Barbara Campbell) 



June 5. I have not dipped pen in ink for an entire 

 week, which has been one of stirring events, for not only 

 have we wholly emerged from indoor life, but we have 

 had a hair-breadth escape from something that not only 

 threatened to mar the present summer, but to cast so 

 heavy a shadow over the garden that no self-respecting 

 flowers could flourish even under the thought of it. 

 You cannot possibly guess with what we were threat- 

 ened, but I am running ahead of myself. 



The day that we began */ the vacation by stop- 

 ping the clocks, we overslept until nine o'clock. When 

 we came downstairs, the house was in a condition of 

 cheerful good order unknown to that hour of the day. 



There is such a temperamental difference in this 

 mere setting things to rights. It can be done so that 

 every chair has a stiffly repellent look, and the conspicu- 

 ous absence of dust makes one painfully conscious that 

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