Houses $^ Gardens 19 



were firmly locked and our egress barred. Once bit, 

 twice shy ! The old fellow had often tried chasing 

 us off, only to see us disappearing round the corner, to 

 pelt him with plum-stones if he attempted to round 

 it in our pursuit. 



This time his tactics of war were changed. Ex- 

 perience had made him crafty. As we stood within 

 the prison walls, steps were heard, and voices too ! 

 The voices of those in highest authority ! 



He had locked us in, and hastened to the house to 

 fetch the " Missus." Since we had been forbidden 

 to eat the fruit according to our own judgment and 

 responsibility, we felt proportionately guilty. Like 

 our first parents, we hid, but we were unearthed. 



I believe I took refuge in the stoke-hole, only to 

 increase my punishment by reason of my brown hol- 

 lands, clean on" that morning, being somewhat sweep- 

 like ! 



****** 



Lying in a deck-chair under a splendid group of 

 primeval yew-trees, whose giant stems vie with the 

 cedars, I look up through the sombre tracery of the 

 overhanging branches to the stars above, which are 

 twinkling and shining with the brilliancy and lustre 

 of a night in the tropics ; yet it is the sky of cloudy, 

 misty England, but one of those somewhat rare nights 

 in August when the air is soft and warm after a day 

 of 78° in the shade. The garden is redolent with the 

 delicious scent of the Nicotiana qffinis, which is grouped 

 in the long herbaceous border on the outskirts of the 

 lawn, their snowy blossoms gleaming in the darkness. 



