On her return she brought comfortable news of the man, so the little flurry blew over and was forgotten by all but Sophie, who remained pale and quiet all the evening, tying evergreen as if her life depended on it.

But as our great Modellers of Gardens have their Magazines of Plants to dispose of, it is very natural for them to tear up all the beautiful Plantations of Fruit Trees, and contrive a Plan that may most turn to their own Profit, in taking off their Evergreens, and the like Moveable Plants, with which their Shops are plentifully stocked.

A hardy, creeping Alpine evergreen, having oval leaves, slightly notched at the margins, which turn to a brilliant crimson during the autumn and winter months.

These bushes and trees were of course bare of leaves, excepting the evergreens, and they were loaded down with the snow.

'From twelve o'clock until three each day a constant stream of carriages and pedestrians filled the evergreen bordered avenue leading from the Wrington village road.'

Two rose-pink pillars of crumbled masonry, guarding some carefully trimmed evergreens on a lawn half buried in rubbish, represented an hotel where the Crown Prince had once stayed.

What is Christmas without the sentiments which hallow the evergreen, the anthem, the mistletoe, the family reunion?

The sunlight had that orange glow that comes only on autumn evenings, the long, slant rays striking across the yellow fields and lighting up the dark evergreens which dotted the landscape with a tawny illumination, like dull flames.

Blount (Travels in the Levant, p. 197) says, speaking of the Jewish burial customs, "those who bestow a marble stone over any [grave] have a hole a yard long and a foot broad, in which they plant an evergreen, which seems to grow from the body, and is carefully watched."

" At Candlemas it was customary, writes Herrick, to replace the Christmas evergreens with sprigs of box, which were kept up till Easter Eve: "Down with the rosemary and bays, Down with the mistletoe, Instead of holly now upraise

" XIII THE PRODIGAL'S DEPARTURE Abraham was up betimes in the morning to greet a day crisp and cold, quiet, yet with sufficient breeze stirring the evergreens in the yard outside to make him predict a speedy voyage.

For a long time he would have naught to do with me, fled as I approached, abandoned the evergreens altogether and sat on the naked tree-tops, as much as threatening to quit the place altogether if I did not leave him in peace.

Every night I saw the light from her window streaming out over the balcony and touching the evergreens with a midnight glow.

Ononis Rotundifolia (Round-leaved Restharrow).A charming hardy evergreen of a shrubby nature.