L'ENVOI. 



HE Author cannot take leave of his 

 readers without expressing the earnest 

 hope that some pleasure and some 

 profit may have been derived by those 

 who have closely followed him through his ' Fern 

 Paradise. 5 To him, at least, the work of writing 

 these pages has been truly a labour of love : for it 

 has called up vividly before his mind's eye de- 

 lightful scenes which he has with, he fears, but 

 imperfect success, attempted to describe. But 

 had not the task been pleasant in itself, it would 

 have been rendered enjoyable by a consciousness 

 of the importance of the object for which it was 

 undertaken. 



For surely to aim at giving pleasure to others 



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