A water-hen has built a nest and filled it with 

 eggs up in an ivy-clad tree-trunk overhanging 

 " The Drain," and farther up, just above my 

 boundary, two broods of wild duck are swim- 

 ming about, adding further charm to this despised 

 bit of water. 



Two years ago I planted one of the beauti- 

 ful American brambles in various different posi- 

 tions. All the plants withered and disappeared 

 long since; but lately two of them have sprung 

 up again in the moister sites chosen on the margin 

 of the brook, as I think I must now in common 

 justice call " The Drain," since it serves as a 

 cradle for so many attractive objects. 



It is thus that we often eventually discover 

 good in an unattractive and evil guise, which 

 causes the reflection as to whether evil must not 

 also have its uses in working toward the universal 

 goal to which all things tend and unconsciously 

 strive. Discontent is the source from which 

 progress springs, and may not perhaps other bad 

 qualities or attributes also have their uses ? May 

 it not be, if we had only eyes to see and brains to 

 discern clearly, that in envy, hatred, malice, and 

 11 161 



