th considerate kindness, had resolved to defer all conversation with Amy relating to her bereavement and the scenes that had ensued. At this holiday-time they w

mediate family circle. But, instead of obtrusive kindness, they enveloped her in the home atmosphere, and made her

w from his boots on the back piazza, an

zero, and it will probably be twelve before morning. It'

good foil for your smil

ose a little while yo

ocking. What a good joke it is, to be sure I We all had the impression you were a little girl, you know, and selected our gifts accordingly. Burt actually bou

a voluble inventory of the contents of a drawer into which he had obtained several surreptitious peeps. His effort to tell an interminable story that he might sit up longer, the d

'll go with you upstairs, and hang my stocking beside yours, and mamma shall put into it all the lovely things you have told me about. Santa Claus does not know much about my coming here, nor what kind of a girl I am, so your kind mamma meant to act the part of Santa Claus in my behalf this year, and give him a chance to get acquainte

y-side, Ned closed his eyes with ineffable content and faith. Amy then returned to the sitting-room, whither she was soon followed by Maggie, and

inish the peach and cherry buds? I've always heard that t

here have been prolonged thaws. The new growth on the trees ripened thoroughly last fall, and the frost since has been gradual and steady. I've known

possible?" Amy a

erto, Amy, the oracle has usually been dumb, but you may

ain proved that his brother's

to you, by the aid of a microscope, what father means, much better than I can expl

erfly or a bird, but should be quite as unhappy as they were I condemned to city life. So you must not l

l the stone-fruits-successfully in this region are the plateaus and slopes of the mountains beyond us. At their height the mercury never fal

you've forgotten your geography. The

e coldest air sinks to the lowest levels, and therefore the trees in the valleys and at the base of the mountains suffer the most. "But what you say," he conclud

oubt already found out-that Webb is the one to go to if one wishes anything explained. What's mo

The crop would be almost certain, and the large late varieties are those which bring the extraordinary prices. What is more, the mountain land

ear after year. Even with the help of the pigs we could not dispose of the crops, the bulk of which, in many instances, I am sorry

year, tormented me with peaches neither to be eaten nor k

sed in my time is the enormous consumption of fruit in large cities. Why, more is disposed of in Newburgh than used to go to New York. But to return to peaches; our only chance for a long time has been to plant young trees every year or two, and we scarcely secured a crop more

it will pay us to plant largely in the spring. I don't

rown in front of sunny walls, espalier, as

en the wood to ripen. Here, on the contrary, we often have too vivid

rthern exposure be

thern slope the buds usually remain dormant until the danger of late frosts is over. I am quite sure, too, that the yellows is a disease due chiefly to careless or dishonest propagation. Pits and buds have been

yellows been discovered

any attempt at cure. The thing to do is to obtain healthier trees, and then set them out on new land. Tha

ly astride of their horticultural hobbies. Come wi

of the Highlands, and had now climbed well above the mountains, softening and etherealizing them until every harsh, rugged outline was lost. The river at their feet looked pallid and ghostly also. When not enchained by fr

thoughts of which, with all that it involves, have oppressed me so long that I must throw off the burden. I was growing m

e than I, and I promise to make it lively for you. I'm just the physician to minister to the mind diseased with melancholy. Trust me. I can do a hundred-fold more for y

ll be hours, and perhaps days, when the past with its

. I'll make the present so real and

foreboding and sinking of heart that oppressed me till I came here.

m or fail to appreciate his worth because I love to run him so. Perhaps you'll wake him up and get him

a home," she said, with a grateful gla