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LEAVES FROM A 

 MADEIRA GARDEN 



Chapter I— DECEMBER 



The Return 



"Short retirement urges sweet return.'" — Milton 



THE Return has ever been a moving 

 incident. From Homer to Hardy 

 it has continually afforded scope 

 for '* invention." If to youth the 

 joy of the first visit with its smack of discovery 

 and exploration is more intense, to the mature 

 perhaps the sober pleasure of coming back to 

 the well-known and the well-tried makes a 

 stronger appeal. And if the return is an 

 annual affair, if it is a matter of " flying, flying 

 south " like the swallows, to elude the rigors of 

 winter in the soft luxury of an Atlantic island, 

 what it loses in excitement it yet may gain in a 

 renewal of interest. As our steamer drifts 



I B 



