NOVEMBER 223 



My great difficulty in November is to prevail 

 upon Sterculus to keep the fire in the greenhouse 

 low enough. His aim and ideal in life is to force 

 things on, mine to keep things back at this season, 

 for we shall want them more later. Moreover, 

 plants get badly drawn if they have too much 

 warmth just now, and then their appearance suffers. 

 All that is necessary is to keep out the damp by 

 day and the frost by night, and a large fire is not 

 needed at present to these ends. In the frames, 

 too, plenty of air is required, and there is no day 

 at this season when the inclement elements must 

 be entirely excluded. An inch or two of air will 

 not hurt any of the plants by day, though care 

 must be taken that all is made safe and snug by 

 night. 



I am thankful to say that my nephew and niece 

 left me to-day, and I am able to breathe freely 

 again. The children of the present day seem to 

 enshrine incredible hardness under covering as 

 beautiful as an angel's. The modern child is 

 pleasing only as a study, because he is in process 

 of formation by a new system which keeps its good 

 results for the very end of the operation. I am 

 bound to admit that these results are a great deal 

 more desirable, say, at the age of eighteen or 

 twenty than those which at a similar age were 

 visible in young people of the preceding genera- 

 tion. The timid, clinging type of girl, the shy, 

 rude type of lad have given place to others whose 

 distinguishing characteristic is independence and 

 self-reliance. I have not the slightest doubt that 

 Basil and Edith will be charming young people 



