nth February, A. D. 1904. 



ESSAY 



BY 



Mrs. ABEL F. STEVENS, Wellesley, Mass. 

 Theme : — The Adornment of Our Rural Homes. 



It is a sulDJect that lies near my heart; and is yearly taking 

 stronger hold on my affections. From my earliest years I 

 cannot remember the time when I did not love the cultivation 

 of plants and trees. And the more I am brought into com- 

 munion with nature, the more I am filled with gratitude to 

 the giver of all good, that he gave me a love for fruits and 

 flowers, and cast my lot where I might enjoy them, and have 

 sweet intercourse with these beautiful objects of creation. And 

 who does not look with wonder and admiration upon the infinite 

 beauty and perfection of these works of the "Hand Divine": 

 the enamelled blossoms bespangling the orchards with starry 

 spray, scarcely less numerous than the glittering hosts above, 

 dancing in rainbow hues and flinging on the breeze a fragrance 

 richer than Ceylon's Isles, — sweet harbinger of a bountiful 

 harvest; the luscious fruits, God's best gift to man — save 

 woman; the velvet peach mantled with beauty's softest blush, 

 and vieing with the oriency of the morning; the delicious 

 plum veiled with silvery bloom over robes of purple or cloth 

 of gold; the royal purple and brilliant cherry; the melting 

 pear; and the burnished apple, — tempting human taste from 

 the mother of our race to her last fair daughter! But what 

 pen can sketch the changing hues, the magnificence and glory, 

 when "Pomona" pours from her ever-flowing lap the varied 

 treasures of the ripening year! Here are creations originally 

 pronounced very good; here beauties which fade only to re- 



