Last Words: A Final Collection of StoriesEwing, Juliana Horatia
General
Last Words: A Final Collection of Stories
Ewing, Juliana Horatia
Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
Then I looked out the Honeysuckle, it was page 404, and there were no
pictures. I began at the beginning of the chapter; this was it, and it
was as funnily spelt as the preface, but I could read it.
"Chap. cv. _Periclymemum_. Honeysuckles.
"The Honisucle that groweth wilde in euery hedge, although it be very
sweete, yet doe I not bring it into my garden, but let it rest in his
owne place, to serue their senses that trauell by it, or haue no
garden."
I had got so far when James came in. He said--"Letters, Miss."
It was the second post, and there was a letter for me, and a book
parcel; both from Mother.
Mother's letters are always delightful; and, like things she says,
they often seem to come in answer to something you have been thinking
about, and which you would never imagine she could know, unless she
was a witch. This was _the knowing bit_ in that letter:--"_Your dear
father's note this morning did me more good than bottles of tonic. It
is due to you, my trustworthy little daughter, to tell you of the bit
that pleased me most. He says--'The children seem to me to be behaving
unusually well, and I must say, I believe the credit belongs to Mary.
She seems to have a genius for keeping them amused, which luckily
means keeping them out of mischief.' Now, good Little Mother, I wonder
how you yourself are being entertained? I hope the others are not
presuming on your unselfishness? Anyhow, I send you a book for your
own amusement when they leave you a bit of peace and quiet. I have
long been fond of it in French, and I have found an English
translation with nice little pictures, and send it to you. I know you
will enjoy it, because you are so fond of flowers._"
Oh, how glad I was that I had let Adela be the Weeding Woman with a
good grace, and could open my book parcel with a clear conscience!
I put the old book away and buried myself in the new one.
I never had a nicer. It was called "A Tour Round my Garden," and some
of the little stones in it--like the Tulip Rebecca, and the
Discomfited Florists--were very amusing indeed; and some were sad and
pretty, like the Yellow Roses; and there were delicious bits, like the
Enriched Woodman and the Connoisseur Deceived; but there was no
"stuff" in it at all.
Some chapters were duller than others, and at last I got into a very
dull one, about the vine, and it had a good deal of Greek in it, and
we have not begun Greek.
But after the Greek, and the part about Bacchus and Anacreon (I did
not care about _them_; they were not in the least like the Discomfited
Florists, or the Enriched Woodman!) there came this, and I liked it
the best of all:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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