Page:Hollyhock house; a story for girls (IA hollyhockhousest00tagg).pdf/341

Rh what’s around the corner before you turn it!” he said. “To think you’ve been the means of givin’ a sorrowful lady, an’ a lady without a way to git her bread, both comfort an’ bread an’ jam, so to speak!”

“Everything is done; the Slumber Day ceremonies are over,” announced Mary at last. “We have put the garden to sleep till another spring. Now our closing rite, then for supper! Mark, you may take part in it. We each in turn bid our garden sleep well till next year, and then we tell it what has been the best gift we have had this year, and ask it to make the gift grow and blossom next year. Florimel first; we begin at the youngest.”

“No, Chum and Lucky first!” laughed Florimel, and she held the cat’s, and then the dog’s, head close to the ground, under the sun dial, where this last event always took place.

“Good-night, sweet garden, our best friend. My best gift has been my home. Keep it and increase it another year for me,” she said in turn, for each. Then when she released them, Lucky ran up the lilac bush, and sat there, and Chum ran around and around the grass, tail out and mouth stretched, laughing, taking it all as a frolic.