146 A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. 



be a clergyman, but Blanche said pa would not like 

 it, and so we gave it up." * 



And I also gave up playing at Spring. I saw that 

 Winter, like an honest, handsome old gentleman, 

 disdained to dye his silvery beard and to act the 

 dandy with a flower in his coat. I broke up my 

 exhibition of dwarfs and pigmies, and distributed 

 them in the shrubberies and borders. I parted with 

 my magnificent collection of chromo-lithographs 

 that is to say, I removed in a wheel-barrow my walks, 

 composed of coloured stones and shells, of brick- 

 dust, tile-dust, coal-dust, cockles, gypsum, and other 



* Here I must tell a couple of authentic histories concerning 

 dolls, in the belief that they will aniuse the British public as 

 they amused me. A six-year-old child, the son of the village 

 schoolmaster, left his mother's side during the baptism of an 

 infant in the church here, and had made some progress towards 

 the font, when he was missed, pursued, and captured. Subse- 

 quently questioned as to his motive, he produced from his 

 pockets two very dirty dolls, negroes in complexion and in scant 

 costume also, and informed his parents, " He was going to take 

 'em to Mister Bennunds " (during my father's lifetime I was 

 known in the parish as " Mr. Beynolds ") " to be listened." 

 Anecdote No. 2 is this : Two wee lassies, aged five and six, 

 were playing in a room with their dolls, and their mother, at 

 her writing-desk, was listening to their talk. The dolls were 

 taken to various imaginary entertainment?, walks, rides, drives, 

 visits, and parties, and at last they were taken to church. 

 "Now, dear, will you sit in this pew ? " said one ; "and will 

 you, dear, sit in this pew ? " said the other. Whereupon the 

 mother saw an opportunity of improving the occasion, and 

 interposed with the remark, " We don't have pews, you know, 

 in our church ; the seats are free and open to all, because all 

 are equal there." And one of the little playmates immediately 

 looked up and said, " Oh, yes, dear ma ; but just now we're 

 playing at very Low Church indeed ! " 



