Martinmas to Ladyday 
But, alas, nor Ivan nor Masha heard 
What was only known to the wild woodbird, 
How, when the fire waxed strong and high, 
A small grey mist arose to the sky. 
Thus, at the eve of the summer’s day, 
Snygurka, the Snow child, passed away. 
And long were the hearts that loved her sore, 
For the well-beloved who was seen no more. 
March 24.—' The roses continue to bud under my very 
eyes. In a few days both the red and white or rather 
cream-coloured ribes will be full-flowered. I wonder who 
was the flower-loving soul who with such a liberal hand 
seems to have scattered bulbs about these banks. I see 
daffodils, or crowbells, as some people call them, uprising 
their grey sheaves and gold bells in all sorts of out-of-the- 
way nooks, among the laurels and mahonia under the 
beeches. I like the meaning of daffodils in Flower 
Language : u Regard ” ; Lent Roses, and Saffron Lillies are 
nice old names for them. I shall try to leave a flower mark 
also behind me. Already I have put in' sweetbriars and 
columbines (culverworts or doveplants) and narcissus in 
the plantation, and inserted roots of arabis and hoped the 
insatiable rabbits would let them grow ! But the rabbits 
here are models of decorum compared to some I have 
heard of in a place in Kent, where they not only ate up 
everything in the garden, but were actually found frisking 
in the hall, and sitting in the drawing-room chairs ! “ Brer 
Cottontail ” is so pretty, I think, especially when he is 
young, a round brown ball of fur. Yet it is a very un- 
willing admiration one accords when one sees, as I did - 
to-day from the window, a tiny brown marauder calmly 
“taking his tea” off one of the topmost shoots of a newly 
planted rose in what I proudly call the Rose-garden, a 
small enclosed terrace where I am trying to acclimatise 
some roses from the Orleanais. 
The little sinner actually stood on tiptoe to reach the 
topmost sprout ! A “ Jameson’s Raid ” at once took place. 
Father and daughters rushed outside, mother and son 
15 
