A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 155 



double poppies, and that most excellent new-comer 

 Shirley, in a spacious width by itself. Every colour 

 harmonised with all purple Canterbury Bell and buff 

 testaceum lily, blue delphinium and red rose all 

 save the scarlet lychnis, which jars in every contrast, 

 and exists only for his own splendid hue. 



Though endless change is still before us, carnations 

 just plumping their buds, hollyhocks showing colour 

 here and there amid their green buttons, sunflowers 

 climbing to full stature, phlox and aster biding their 

 time ; yet here is a period fulfilled. The Summer is 

 of age ; and of long custom the moment has for me 

 a touch of sadness beyond the forlornest days of early 

 autumn. 



I had been working in the vegetable quarters, 

 making up arrears of my late recess ; and such reflec- 

 tions as these came to me in a back-straightening walk 

 up and down the long path. I had superintended 

 Bish's gathering of peas for Lucy, checking that 

 selection of the elderly grey pod filled with hard cubic 

 seeds which are his ideal of a " nice-eatin' pea ; " an 

 ideal which he enforces, as many greater folk in 

 larger matters, very cheerfully on the rest of the world. 

 With the Ashleaves he can scarcely go wrong, though 

 he shakes his head over the extravagance of them 

 early are they and small, and of rare succulence give 



