258 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS 
“Your Aunt Amanda would never have allowed 
you to go out in this rain,” she called after we had 
started. We, however, were off, and it would have 
been foolish to turn back then. 
The nursery is quite three miles from the Six 
Spruces, and we found it necessary to drive slowly, 
the roads were so muddy. Once there, we left the 
rockaway and tramped up and down the rows of 
young trees. It was “great fun,” as Miss Wise- 
man tells us American girls enjoy saying; but in 
another way it was unwise for us to have come to 
the nursery. Before this, Joseph had sent his or- 
ders by post, and, when the things came, we were 
delighted. Here in the nursery, however, we saw 
so many beautiful shrubs and plants that we wished 
for them all sorely, although we should never in 
our sound senses have dreamed of ordering them 
by post. For an instant, I even felt that perhaps 
I should prefer having some other tree than the 
weeping willow. 
Joseph would not listen to such a whim. “You 
have always wished for a weeping willow,” he said, 
“and now is your chance to pick out a good one.” 
Then we walked in a little grove of these trees, 
and at length decided on one with a straight stem 
that was fairly well grown. 
“Shall we go back now?” Joseph asked, thinking 
to avoid temptation. 
My eye, however, had been caught by another 
grove of trees with leaves like stars, turned tO' most 
