“which, with looks of love,
Spreads its whispering leaves above,
Through long summer hours.”
A cherry-tree stands by the door. White and blue pigeons sit upon the roof, and coo. The little boys smell the sweet flowers in the garden, as they study their books. All kinds of sweet flowers grow in that charming garden, alongside of the school-house. There are whole beds of the heliotrope, the ever-sweet heliotrope, with its gray, crimped leaves, and its yellow heart. Lovely mignionette, too, is hiding itself everywhere. Although you do not see this modest flower, whose pretty French name means little darling, yet you smell its sweetness continually. There are white, and pink, and deep red roses, in full bloom; and verbenas, pink, crimson, blue, white, and purple; and the snow-white day-lily, which smells like fresh, ripe grapes. And near the little school-house is the prettiest bower, made entirely of the cypress-vine. It looks as fine and delicate as lace-work, yet its stalks are so thickly woven that it will not blow down.
In front of the school-house is a green lawn. When the boys stood upon it they saw the river, and the hills on the other side, and the noble Catskill Mountains, as blue as the sky.
In this beautiful little place the boys spent some hours every day. When their lessons were over they played in the garden, or swung, or sometimes rode upon the donkey.
One day, as Alfred sat by the door, he saw something run past him, very swiftly. He called out,
“O, Miss Lee, I see something!”
“What do you see, Alfred?” said Miss Lee.
“A pretty little red thing, with a long, bushy tail,” said he.