42 
HARDY FEENS. 
is always decked with flowers, and the hand that 
places them there is the rough toil- stained one of 
the old housekeeper, Jeanne. 
My mistress used to put them there," she 
said ; " but she died when the little miss was born, 
and now there is only me." 
Good old Jeanne! with her hard features and 
tender heart ! whose only outward rehgious observ- 
ances seemed to consist in placing the flowers 
and in sundry crossings of herself. How much 
I used to enjoy our shoppings and marketings 
together in the early morning ; Jeanne's head 
coquettishly adorned with a brilHant amber ker- 
chief, tied in a dainty knot on one side, and she 
herself trying, with unexampled patience, to make 
me a proficient in (her) French, which consisted 
of a most bewildering ijatois of Spanish and 
French mixed together in one confused mass. 
I have never found Septentrionale growing in 
the shade, nor do I believe it could endure such a 
situation; it luxuriates in warmth and sunshine, 
and does not care for much water. The one great 
