THE PERGOLA 



edged walk, drinking in the fragrant air of early morning. Some- 

 times they are nature-loving " seigneurs " and come in with bunches 

 of " yellow daisies, " as they eall the lance-leaved coreopsis which 

 apparently grows wild in every spare corner, the whole length of 

 the hardy border. 



Down through the pergola comes every morning the kitchen- 

 gardener laden with his baskets of freshly gathered fruits and vege- 

 tables. If the children are near, they rush to meet him begging 

 a few strawberries or raspberries for their doll's tea-party on the 

 stone bench under the Florentine fountain. Every one knows how 

 hungry dolls get about the middle of the morning, and here are food 

 and drink in one. Such an opportunity must not be neglected! 



The only thing which one very conventional lady could find to 

 admire about our place was the smooth acre of turf which lay at 

 the back of the house and was bounded by the hardy border of the 

 pergola on the west, and the woods on the other two sides, making 

 the foil, the contrasting element to all our wildne<-. 



Not but what we had pleasures and pictures on the lawn too. 

 Could anything be more graceful than the squirrel's leap or the 

 sweeping Hash of the tanager - In early Fall the marigolds and 

 salvia. rilling in all bare spaces along the lumly border, are a favor- 

 ite field for the humming-birds, and the Xew England asters' rich 

 purple attracts the white butterflies by the hundred. With what 

 keen pleasure we watch the rhythmic ^wing of the long rake as it 

 gathers into heaps the freshly mown grass, or the slow moving 



of the low latticed leaf-cart on its broad tire-! 



183 



