144 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



The robins light on it, en route, when 

 they fear that their thefts in other gar- 

 dens will find them out, and the polite 

 cedar-birds, smoothing each other's 

 feathers, sun themselves in it daily 

 before the flocks break into pairs. 

 Upon the other side, a hospitable dog- 

 wood spreads itself, a goodly thing 

 from spring till frost, and from it 

 spireas, Deutzias, weigelas, lilacs, the 

 flowering quince, and strawberry shrub, 

 follow the path that winds under the 

 arch, past mats of ferns and laurel, to 

 a tilled corner, a little inner garden, 

 where plants are nursed and petted, 

 and no shading tree or greedy root 

 robs them of sun or nourishment. 



Along the path between the pines, 

 the black leaf mould of the woods has 

 been strewn freely. The fern tribe is 

 prolific in this neighbourhood, and a 

 five-mile circuit encloses some twenty 



