Front Dooryards 51 



down the mossy path of the front yard, and through 

 the open front gate was borne the master, the mis- 

 tress, and then their children, and children's chil- 

 dren. All are gone from our sight, many from our 

 memory, and often too from our ken, while the 

 Lilacs and Peonies and Flowers de Luce still blos- 

 som and flourish with perennial youth, and still 

 claim us as friends. 



At the side of the house or by the kitchen door 

 would be seen many thrifty blooms: poles of Scar- 

 let Runners, beds of Portulacas and Petunias, rows 

 of Pinks, bunches of Marigolds, level expanses of 

 Sweet Williams, banks of cheerful Nasturtiums, tan- 

 gles of Morning-glories and long rows of stately 

 Hollyhocks, which were much admired, but were 

 seldom seen in the front yard, which was too shaded 

 for them. Weeds grew here at the kitchen door in 

 a rank profusion which was hard to conquer; but 

 here the winter's Fuchsias or Geraniums stood in 

 flower pots in the sunlight, and the tubs of Olean- 

 ders and Agapanthus Lilies. 



The flowers of the front yard seemed to bear 

 a more formal, a " company " aspect ; convention- 

 ality rigidly bound them. Bachelor's Buttons might 

 grow there by accident, but Marigolds never were 

 tolerated, — they were pot herbs. Sunflowers were 

 not even permitted in the flower beds at the side 

 of the house unless these stretched down to the 

 vegetable beds. Outside the front yard would be 

 a rioting and cheerful growth of pink Bouncing Bet, 

 or of purple Honesty, and tall straggling plants of 

 a certain small flowered, ragged Campanula, and a 



