The Sycamore. 45 



" Quaint little wilderness of flowers, straggling hither and 

 thither, 

 Moming glories tangled about the larkspur run to seed ; " 



and proceeds to express her welcome thus : 



" Welcome, a thousand times welcome, ye dear and delicate 



neighbours, 

 Bird and bee and butterfly, and redbreast fairy fine ! 

 Proud am I to offer you a field for your graceful labours ; 

 All the honey and all the seeds are yours in this garden of 



mine ! 

 I sit on the doorstep and watch you. Beyond lies the infinite 



ocean, 

 Sparkling, shimmering, whispering, rocking itself to rest, 

 And the world is full of perfume and colour and beautiful 



motion, 

 And each sweet hour of this new day the happiest seems and 



best." 



I spoke of the high branch of the sycamore tree, but 

 it has points of interest beyond its being beautiful and 

 affording a good resort for many birds. If it does not 

 quite match the chestnut — the "gummy chestnut buds " 

 of Lord Tennyson * — in the thickness of the gum which 



* The verse in "The Miller's Daughter" originally stood thus : — 



" Remember you that pleasant day, 

 When, after roving in the woods 

 ('Twas April then), I came and lay 



Beneath those gummy chestnut-buds ? " 



The critic of the Quarterly Review, who noticed the whole volume in 

 a fine strain of mockery and sarcasm, was especially funny and quizzical' 

 over the "gummy chestnut-buds," and so the nice observation had to 

 give place to more fanciful and amplified and less effective phrases in 

 the later editions :— 



" But, Alice, what an hour was that, 



When, after roving in the woods 



('Twas April then), I came and sat 



Below the chestnuts, when their buds 

 Were glistening to the breezy blue" • - 



which, by the way, any bud with dew or moisture after rain would 

 do. Such are the fine ministries of ignorant, cynical, self-conceited" 

 "crickets," as Artemus Ward named them ! 



