SOMETIME 



worth the difficult journey; but after visiting the three 

 churches, wandering through the holy grottoes and ad- 

 miring the extensive prospect, on the steep descent my 

 perverse mind would hold but one picture, the old 

 well-curb. Whether actually built during his lifetime 

 or not, it has an admirable feeling of age and solidity. 

 Sometime I want to reproduce it on our own estate. 

 Its rugged timbers, its rough supports, its picturesque 

 curb will not only fit into our scheme of living, but 

 will remind us often of that holy man, the patron saint 

 of all true nature-lovers, St. Francis of Assisi. 



If we lived here all the year round we would cer- 

 tainly turn the dog-trot into a conservatory for the win- 

 ter. It would be an easy undertaking, the glass remov- 

 able in summer must merely be extended on the south 

 to the terrace wall and so enclosed with proper ventila- 

 tion, heat and light; then it could be filled with those 

 tender plants which now go into the glasshouse. Here, 

 with long boxes of ferns and trays of flowering bulbs, 

 with rose geranium slips and jasmine trained on the 

 walls, what an altogether fascinating bower we could 



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