HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 313 



the mossy stones from amid which the fountain gur- 

 gles over, I find lodging places, not only for rampant 

 wild-ferns, but for a stately Calla, and for some 

 showy type of the Amaryllidae. 



It is in scattered and unexpected places, that 

 I like my children to ferret out the wild-flowers 

 brought down from the woods the frail Colombine 

 in its own cleft of rock, the Wild-turnip, with its 

 quaint green flower in some dark nook, that is like 

 its home in the forest the Maiden's-hair thriving in 

 the moist shadow of rocks ; and among these trans- 

 planted wild ones of the flower-fold, I like to drop 

 such modest citizens of the tame country as a tuft of 

 Violets, or a green phalanx of the bristling Lilies of 

 the Valley. 



Year by year, as we loiter among them, after the 

 flowering season is over, we change their habitat, 

 from a shade that has grown too dense, to some 

 summer bay of the coppices ; and with the next year 

 of bloom, the little ones come in with marvellous 

 reports of Lilies, where Lilies were never seen before 

 or of fragrant Violets, all in flower, upon the 

 farthest skirt of the hill-side. It is very absurd, of 

 course ; but I think I enjoy this more and the rare 

 intelligence which the little ones bring in with their 

 flashing, eager eyes than if the most gentlemanly 

 gardener from Thorburn's were to show a Dahlia, 

 14 



