Aunt Sarah had taught Mary how to make a beautiful little home-made fernery. By planting these all on a large waiter, banking moss around the edges to keep them moist and by planting them early, they would be growing finely when taken by her to the city in the fall of the year--a pleasant reminder of her trip to the "Narrows" of the Delaware River. Frau Schmidt brought up the rear, carrying huge bunches of mint, pennyroyal and the useful herb called "Quaker Bonnet." [Illustration: THE OLD TOWPATH AT THE NARROWS] Driving home at the close of the day, the twinkling lights in farm house windows they swiftly passed, were hailed with delight by the tired but happy party, knowing that each one brought them nearer home than the one before. To enliven the drowsy members of the party, Fritz Schmidt sang the following to the tune of "My Old Kentucky Home," improvising as he sang: The moon shines bright on our "old Bucks County home," The meadows with daisies are gay, The song of the whipporwill is borne on the breeze, With the scent of the new mown hay. Oh! the Narrows are great with their high granite peaks, And Ringing Rocks for ages the same; But when daylight fades and we're tired and cold, There's no place like "hame, clear alt hame." The last lingering rays of the sun idealized the surrounding fields and woods with that wonderful afterglow seen only at the close of day. The saffron moon appeared to rise slowly from behind the distant tree-tops, and rolled on parallel with them, and then ahead, as if to guide them on their way, and the stars twinkled one by one from out the mantle of darkness which slowly enveloped the earth. The trees they swiftly passed, when the moonbeams touched them, assumed gigantic, grotesque shapes in the darkness. Mary quoted from a favorite poem, "The Huskers," by Whittier: 'Till broad and red as when he rose, the sun Sank down at last, And, like a merry guest's farewell, the day In brightness passed. And lo! as through the western pines, On meadow, stream and pond, Flamed the red radiance of a sky, Set all afire beyond. Slowly o'er the eastern sea bluffs, A milder glory shone, And the sunset and the moon-rise Were mingled into one! As thus into the quiet night, The twilight lapsed away, And deeper in the brightening moon The tranquil shadows lay. From many a brown, old farm house And hamlet without name, Their milking and their home tasks done, The merry huskers came. "You mean 'The Merry Picknickers Came,'" said Fritz Schmidt, as Mary finished, "and here we are at home. Good night, all." CHAPTER XIX. MARY IS TAUGHT TO MAKE PASTRY, PATTIES AND "ROSEN KUCHEN."