POSTSCRIPT 



slightly as he said, " I beg your pardon, my 

 lord " (even Yankee bishops are lords in Eng- 

 land), " for my language, but I am a plain-spoken 

 man and always call a spade a spade." 



" Indeed," said the Bishop, " I 'm surprised at 

 that. From your conversation just now, I might 



have supposed that you would call it a d d 



old shovel." 



Have I been calling honest spades excommu- 

 nicated old shovels ? If I have, then let me beg 

 pardon of the spades. Flowers are too beautiful 

 to quarrel over, but let us instead all cordially 

 join hands, and try to make them bloom ever 

 more beautifully, more bountifully, and where 

 they never bloomed before. 



When I first came to Insley very few flowers 

 were to be seen thereabouts. Only a geranium 

 or two in a window testified to the love of 

 flowers by the inmates; but as the years have 

 passed the flowers have increased, and now dot 

 most of the lawns about the dwellings in the 

 village, and near the farmhouses by the lake. In 

 this I have helped where and when I could, and 

 little packages of seeds found their way to those 

 who longed for them. Do not let this be deemed 

 a hint to others to turn to the island for seeds, 

 i8 273 



