FRAGRANT FLOWERS AND LEAVES 303 



are lifted, like the lemon balms, and kept in the dry, 

 light cellar in tubs. 



But oh ! Mrs. Evan, you must go and see Mrs. 

 Marchant's lilies ! They are growing as freely as 

 weeds among the uncut grass, and blooming as pro- 

 fusely as the bell- lilies in Opal Farm meadows ! And 

 all the spring bulbs are also grown in this grass that lies 

 between the shorn grass paths, and in autumn when 

 the tops are dead and gone it is carefully burned 

 over and the turf is all the winter covering they have. 



Does the grass look ragged and unsightly? No, 

 because I think that it is cut lightly with a scythe after 

 the spring bulbs are gone and that the patient woman, 

 whose life the garden is, keeps the tallest seeded grasses 

 hand trimmed from between the lily stalks ! 



Ah, but how that garden lingers with me, and the 

 single glimpse I caught of the deep dark eyes of its 

 mistress as they looked out of a vine- clad window 

 toward the sky ! 



I have made a list of the plants that are possible 

 for my own permanent bed of fragrant flowers and 

 leaves, that I may enjoy them, and that the Infant 

 may have fragrant memories to surround all her 

 youth and bind her still more closely to the things 

 of outdoor life. 



