WEST AND NORTH OF CART AGO 1 03 



white roses — we were conducted into the fields and made 

 free of the berries. Mr. Rudin seemed much gratified at 

 our delight and indeed it would be hard to find a prettier 

 field. The berries were in perfect order, the rows as straight 

 and plants as clean as if just arranged for a prize contest. 

 Each plant was about a foot across, covered with tiny buds, 

 open flowers, young and ripe fruit. They were allowed to 

 bear fruit for ten months in the year only, otherwise they 

 would exhaust themselves. The berries were large, sweet, 

 juicy and tender. At first we felt shy about eating the 

 fruit but Mr. Rudin's urging soon induced us to try a few 

 and the more we picked the more clumps of berries we saw 

 at a short distance that called to us. So we wandered over 

 the field eating strawberries as we had never dreamed of 

 doing, and whenever we stopped picking for a moment Mr. 

 Rudin gathered a handful on their long stems and urged 

 them upon us. Here and there among the berries were tall 

 rose trees, seven to eight feet high, with large, not very 

 double shell-pink roses of exquisite shape, color, texture and 

 perfume. We gathered a few, which caused Mr. Rudin to 

 send for his shears and cut a huge bunch of roses and carna- 

 tions, for he also had some rows of these flowers. Orange 

 trees were full of flowers and ripe fruit, and on a little sunny 

 bank were masses of long-stemmed sweet violets. 



When we had eaten all we thought we could we moved 

 out toward the gate, where we untied our horses and pre- 

 pared to take some pictures before we left. We coaxed the 

 babies — five little children all remarkably pretty — into po- 

 sition, photographed them and then started to say good-by. 

 But no. We must sit down in the corridor a minute. So 

 we were conducted to a table in the corner of the corridor 

 and there beheld a huge dish of the biggest and finest straw- 

 berries — and we were expected to eat them all! 



We had only intended to make a short stay at the berry- 



