THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE YEAR 215 



Keiffer pear ? We may grow weary sometimes of 

 the constant reiteration of Virginian creeper, 

 though it is seldom that fault is found with it in 

 the season of its crimson glory ; but there are 

 vines, for example, Vitis Coignetice and the old 

 claret vine, and many shrubs, like the dwarf 

 Japanese maples, one or two of the barberries, 

 some of the sumachs (though it would be wiser 

 to leave out the beautiful but wicked poison oak), 

 liquid amber, and others, which are more rarely 

 used than might be, with this end in view. 



Yet deck the autumn as we may, there is always 

 the sadness of decay and death in the fall of the 

 leaf. The symphony of the year is ending. Each 

 musician, as he finishes his part, closes his book 

 and puts out his light. One by one they silently 

 pass out, until the bandmaster, intent upon his 

 score, at length looks up and finds himself left 

 alone. 



So with the gardener. The summer is gone, the 

 harvest is past, flowers are withered, the last leaf 

 is fluttering down. The moment seems filled with 

 unutterable melancholy. 



But it is only for a moment, this inevitable de- 

 pression ; it will pass. The leaves will soon be 

 swept up, the litter removed, and we are heartened 

 once more. For look where we will, we are met 

 no longer by desolation, but by tokens of the life 

 that is to be. 



WINTER'S REST 

 ACCORDING to the theorv that St Valentine ushers 



