But it went by very quickly, and
when the leaves began to fall they fell very quickly, and Arthur never
had to go up the trees and shake them.
After the first hard frost we quite gave up playing at the Earthly
Paradise; first, because there was nothing we could do, and, secondly,
because a lot of snow fell; and Arthur had a grand idea of making-snow
statues all along the terrace, so that Mother could see them from the
drawing-room windows. We worked very hard, and it was very difficult
to manage legs without breaking; so we made most of them Romans in
togas, and they looked very well from a distance, and lasted a long
time, because the frost lasted.
And, by degrees, I almost forgot that terrible afternoon in Mary's
Meadow. Only when Saxon came to see us I told him that I was very
glad that no one understood his bark, so that he could not let out
what had become of the hose-in-hose.
But when the winter was past, and the snow-drops came out in the
shrubbery, and there were catkins on the nut trees, and the
missel-thrush we had been feeding in the frost sat out on mild days
and sang to us, we all of us began to think of our gardens again, and
to go poking about "with our noses in the borders," as Arthur said,
"as if we were dogs snuffing after truffles." What we really were
"snuffing after" were the plants we had planted in autumn, and which
were poking and sprouting, and coming up in all directions.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87