102 THE STRAWBERRY GARDEN. 



all went smooth again. Not all serene, however. Mary 

 was ill. As the fall burned away into the winter, and the 

 trees exchanged their green and gold for sombre gray, she, 

 too, seemed to droop and fade. Helen was taken back again, 

 and the family doctor privately asked to give his opinion. 

 He was puzzled at first. Then he said, " Her digestion is 

 good and her pulse quiet. She is well physically ; how she 

 is mentally, could not say. Should jadge something dis- 

 turbed her peace of mind." 



Something did decidedly. The note lost by the careless 

 Johnny, and the sudden discovery of a certain trunk 

 marked for foreign parts at the door of the express office, as 

 she passed one day, combined with a mysterious silence on 

 the part of some one, and a more mysterious and indefinite 

 something in the social atmosphere about her, drove her in 

 upon herself, and she became possessed of a spirit of unrest 

 and melancholy. 



November arrived, with frosty nights and dull, cold 

 days. The leaves fell from the grape-vines, and the straw- 

 berry-vines turned dark and dry. 



The first most important thing in the horticultural pro- 

 gramme for the season was to prune the grape-vines and 

 lay them down for the winter. 



"I'm sure I don't know how to do it," said Johnny, as 

 he contemplated the tangled mass of vines scrambling over 

 the fence. 



