In Lilac Tide 



149 



now they are as wild as their companions, the Cedar 

 hedges. 



Gathering in the front dooryard of a fallen farm- 

 house some splendid branches of flowering Lilac, I 

 found a few feet of cellar wall and wooden house 

 side standing, and the sills of two windows. These 

 window sills, exposed for years to the bleaching and 



Lilacs at Hopewell. 



fading of rain and sun and frost, still bore the circu- 

 lar marks of the flower pots which, filled with house- 

 plants, had graced the kitchen windows for many 

 a winter under the care of a flower-loving house 

 mistress. A few days later I learned from a woman 

 over ninety years of age — an inmate of the " Poor 

 House" — the story of the home thus touchingly 

 indicated by the Lilac bushes and the stains of the 

 flower pots. Over eighty years ago she had brought 



