304 FEBRUARY 



face the old shacket upstairs as mightn't see 'twas 

 a ghostie's doin'. I took an' run, an' I runned 

 a'most till I got home. If Sarah wants to see ma 

 again she must come yer ; I wouldn't go anighst 

 that there cottage no more not fer all the sisters as 

 ever was. Nor for all the missuses neether," he 

 added, as an after-thought. But whether it was of 

 Mrs. Sterculus that he was thinking or of myself, 

 who for weeks had urged him to visit the bed-ridden 

 Sarah, I have no means of judging. 



I am certain only of one thing. So long as 

 Sterculus lives he will believe that he saw a ghost 

 in that lonely cottage, and he will bring as in- 

 disputable evidence the tale of the blue spirit light 

 that shone in the kitchen, and the incident of the 

 axe changed by enchantment into a poker. And 

 these evidences will be sufficient to prove his case 

 to his rustic hearers. There was less proof than 

 this for the appearance of Daddy King's ghost in 

 our lane near by, and nobody would dream of casting 

 any doubt upon the story of its manifestation. 



Feb. 7. I am rather ashamed to confess it, after 

 my good advice to myself about crowding the 

 greenhouse shelves through the winter with plants 

 which do not bloom until spring, but one of my 

 chief joys for the near future is a collection of pots 

 of the lovely stock Mauve Beauty, which, from 

 seed sown in July in five-inch pots, and thinned 

 to four plants in each, is now a picture of colour 

 as well as delightful in scent. And, after all, it 

 was not for long that they occupied the stage 

 before they began to show bud, for the winter 

 was so mild that they had cold-frame treatment 



