THE FALL OF THE LEAF 



preparation against new delights, another year / of solicitude 

 for the treasures of beauty which are to brighten another 

 Spring, another Summer. The seed of the dying Annuals 

 has been saved/ the more tender of the Perennials are 

 timely withdrawn into shelter, while the hardier are cosily 

 tucked in their own bed for the coming long winter sleep. 

 It is the time of the tidying down and of the confident 

 "good night till next year! " 



"Colder, like our affections/ 7 indeed! What will not 

 love of rhetoric perpetrate ? and Christmastide drawing 

 on apace ! 



The Master of the House has an old-fashioned weakness 

 -what may be called a "Dickensy" weakness for things 

 Christmassy. And his family have all childlike tastes and 

 are quite ready to minister to his picturesque fancy. 

 We have a Christmas tree a Spruce sapling, selected 

 yearly for sacrifice in the territory called the Wilderness. 

 It must be said that the wide library, with the capacious 

 hearth and the beamed ceiling, lends a suitable scenery to 

 this homelike <but, we fear, obsolescent) entertainment. 

 The tree is lit up on the first night for ourselves/ on the 

 second for the household / and a third time for the children. 

 For the true pleasures of Yule would be incomplete with- 

 out a " foregathering-and-rejoicing- together " <as only a 

 tough German compound word could express it> of all 

 grades of age and station. The children, in this case, are 

 those of the Catechism class and of our employes which 

 pompous term must be understood to refer to the gardener, 

 the chauffeur, the undergardener, and the "occasional 



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