THE EFFECT OF TREES 



and tore in at open chamber windows, and cowered 

 close to hedges ; and, in short, went anywhere for 

 safety. But the oddest feat they achieved was, to 

 take advantage of the sudden opening of Mr. Pecksniff's 

 front door, to dash wildly down his passage, with the 

 wind following close upon them, and finding the back 

 door open, incontinently blew out the lighted candle 

 held by Miss Pecksniff, and slammed the front door 

 against Mr. Pecksniff, who was at that moment enter- 

 ing, with such violence, that in the twinkling of an eye, 

 he lay on his back at the bottom of the steps. Being 

 by this time weary of such trifling performances, the 

 boisterous rover hurried away rejoicing, roaring over 

 moor and meadow, hill and flat, until it got out to sea, 

 where it met with other winds similarly disposed, and 

 made a night of it." 



* * » * # 



Is not this wonderful and immortal passage as much 

 a part of the Charm of Gardens as the most delectable 

 poetry on the perfumed air of a summer night ? 



Often, when the logs are crackling on the hearth, one 

 hears those hunted leaves come banging on the window 

 panes, those gaunt trees tossing in the wind. When 

 all the garden lies cold and bare and stripped of green, 

 the trees roar out an answer to the wind, an hundred 

 garden voices swell the storm, and you sit happy by your 

 fireside and dream new colours for the garden beds ; and 

 where a white frost sparkles on the earth, and trees lift 

 up bare fingers to the sky, you see deep wealth of green, 

 and jewelled borders brim full of spring flowers, and 

 there a set of bulbs you have nursed, come out sweet in 

 green sheathes, and here a tree, now naked, clothed in 

 young green. 



That for the night. For the morning, trailing clouds 

 of mist over the trees like fairy shawls alive with dew- 



177 z 



