LETTER XIX 



Gap in Correspondence Inclement Weather Apricots unripened 

 Peas Rooks and Walnuts Farmers : their Difficulties 

 Failure in Hay Crop Births and Marriages Young Birds : 

 Difficulties of Rearing Dangers to Young Birds Cats and 

 Birds Terns Forked Tails Swallows' Tails Errors in 

 representing them. 



$th October 1888. 



DEAR MARCO Again I have neglected 

 you for a great while in an entirely inexcus- 

 able way. To-day I found a letter that I 

 began to you in May last which I left un- 

 finished ; I enclose it, to in some measure fill 

 up the gap. 



This last summer has been a curiously 

 inclement one, the fruit scarcely ripening at 

 at all, hardly an apple fit to eat without cook- 

 ing it, gooseberries and strawberries being 

 the only things that did well. I had a mag- 

 nificent show of apricots on the south wall of 



