THE LAUREL BUSH

An Old-Fashioned Love Story

by

DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK

Author of _John Halifax, Gentleman_,
&c., &c., &c.







Chapter 1.

It was a very ugly bush indeed; that is, so far as any thing in nature
can be really ugly. It was lopsided--having on the one hand a stunted
stump or two, while on the other a huge heavy branch swept down to the
gravel-walk. It had a crooked gnarled trunk or stem, hollow enough to
entice any weak-minded bird to build a nest there--only it was so near
to the ground, and also to the garden gate. Besides, the owners of
the garden, evidently of practical mind, had made use of it to place
between a fork in its branches a sort of letter-box--not the government
regulation one, for twenty years ago this had not been thought of; but a
rough receptacle, where, the house being a good way off, letters might be
deposited, instead of; as hitherto, in a hole in the trunk--near the foot