CHAPTER ; i V> V 



BEAUTIES OF -MY i " 



HE stars were still shining when I 

 went out of the door, as they gen- 

 erally are when I emerge from the 

 house into the garden on clear 

 mornings in winter. 



All was still in the fresh, crisp air, but the 

 sparrows seemed to resent the intrusion of an 

 early riser and fluttered noisily out of the ivy 

 and yews as I passed close to their roosting 

 place. 



The ivy on the back of the house, like all else 

 about that edifice, had such a hirsute and ragged 

 appearance that it had to be cut to the bone a 

 year ago, and it has not yet recovered from its 

 close shearing and from a subsequent interfer- 

 ence of bricklayers and repairers. The sparrows 

 found their cover so attenuated that they took 

 to the yews for a time; but with the gradual 



3 



