THE SIX OF SPADES. 83 



greater festivals with flower and branch, just as under 

 the Older Testament but now, in substance and no 

 more in type the chapiters were covered with pome- 

 granates, " and upon the top of the pillars was lily 

 work." I like to see the children (but don't tell 

 Verjuice) bringing the long ropes, covered round with 

 evergreens, from their schoolroom, to festoon the 

 arches, and encircle the pillars ; and yet more do I 

 delight to watch them hurrying home from wood, and 

 bank, and brook, with their pretty posies in their 

 hands. It pleases me most to see the fresh spring 

 flowers at Easter, the bunches of primroses and 

 violets smiling at intervals upon the dark-green yew ; 

 but those children tell me, and this of course, that 

 the old church is most beautiful upon their own 

 festival, the which, being held upon St. Luke's Day, 

 brings dahlias in clothes-baskets to our Curate, until 

 the glowing glass in our painted windows begins to 

 pale its ineffectual fire, and our frivolous damsels to 

 complain on Sunday that their best bonnets have not 

 fair play. 



Our Curate is not only a lover of flowers himself, 

 but a zealous missionary florist. He was instru- 

 mental in establishing our Cottage-Gardening So- 

 ciety, which has reclaimed many a waste place from 

 sterility, many a sot from the beer-house, and brought 

 comfort to many a home. I remember Tom Cooper's 

 garden, for instance, as the favoured residence of 

 every known British weed, and as the favoured re- 

 sidence also of the ugliest and leanest pig in the 

 parish. Mr. Cooper devoted his spare time, at that 

 period, to swearing, thick ale, and skittles, and, 



