would be, and what thousands of roses would grow
on every side!

Her skipping-rope had hung over her arm when
she came in and after she had walked about for
a while she thought she would skip round the whole
garden, stopping when she wanted to look at
things. There seemed to have been grass paths
here and there, and in one or two corners there
were alcoves of evergreen with stone seats or tall
moss-covered flower urns in them.

As she came near the second of these alcoves she
stopped skipping. There had once been a flower-bed
in it, and she thought she saw something sticking
out of the black earth -- some sharp little pale
green points. She remembered what Ben Weatherstaff
had said and she knelt down to look at
them.

"Yes, they are tiny growing things and they
_might_ be crocuses or snowdrops or daffodils," she
whispered.

She bent very close to them and sniffed the fresh
scent of the damp earth. She liked it very much.

"Perhaps there are some other ones coming
up in other places," she said. "I will go all over
the garden and look."

She did not skip, but walked. She went slowly
and kept her eyes on the ground. She looked in
the old border beds and among the grass, and after

[[100]]

p099 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p100w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p101

v?