40 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



Their only rival is the border which grew in 

 the garden at Nuneaton, where George Eliot 

 played as a little sister. By the time she was 

 old enough to drink in their beauty, the aged 

 sods of snowdrops, a foot in width, bordered a 

 path thirty feet long. I have dreamed about 

 that border for years and years ! Since there is 

 no sensation more pure and innocent than the 

 recognition of that first beating of the heart of 

 the rising of the Spirit of all things visible 

 which is expressed in this flower. The tiny 

 spark of vitality which warms the breast of 

 the pines and the chick-a-dee is the only 

 thing I know as full of the Life Everlasting 

 as is the snowdrop. By her own courage 

 she melts the snow above her, and pushes 

 her green stalk through the round little well 

 which she has thawed by the warm pulsing 

 of her own high purpose, and aided by one, 

 at least, of the 



"ten thousand liveried angels" 



which lackey the chaste soul. She hangs out 

 her bells : green for summer coming ; white 

 for winter going. She has so many pretty 

 names Candlemas bells, Our Lady's bells, 



