ARBUTUS-TREE. 309 



in almost every farmyard. The cottager greatly values me, 

 and hence I flourish with my kindred beside many a rustic 

 home, ministering to the necessities of its inhabitants, and 

 supplying their simple luxuries. 



My two brothers, the dwarf or Banewort, and the 

 parsley-leaved, live far remote. The first prefers to dwell 

 amid ruins or on heaps of rubbish, though occasionally 

 found in hedgerows ; the second is said to be a native of 

 Salisbury Plain, though found occasionally in the midland 

 and northern counties. 



A melodious voice was next heard. It came from a 

 young arbutus-tree, who spoke with a slight Irish accent, 

 and told concerning her distant home. I came, she said, 

 from Ireland : my parent grew beside the waters of Killarney, 

 fit emblem of perpetual spring : 



" Green all the year ; and fruits and blossoms blushed 

 In social sweetness on the selfsame bough." 



The farmer's son planted me while a sapling, an intruder, 

 and yet welcome, and he charged his sister to take care 



