one of delicate pea-green.

There were no birches with pure white skin, or graceful elms, or
fluffy pussy willows, but so many beautiful foreign things that it
would seem ungrateful to mourn those left behind in the dear New
England woods; and as for flowers, there are no yellow and purple
violets, fragile anemones, or blushing Mayflowers, but in March the
hillsides are covered with red, in April flushed with pink and blue,
in May brilliant with yellow blossoms; and in the canyons, where the
earth is moist, there are flowers all the year.

And then the girls would never forgive me if I should forget the
superb yucca, or Spanish bayonet, which is as beautiful as a tropical
queen. Its tall, slender stalk has no twigs or branches, but its
leaves hang down from the top like bayonet-blades; and oh, there
rises from the centre of them such a stately princess of a flower,
like a tree in itself, laden with cream-white, velvety, fragrant
blossoms.

The boys often climbed the hillsides and brought home these splendid
treasures, which were placed in pails of water at the tent doors, to
shed their luxuriant beauty and sweetness in the air for days
together. They brought home quantities of Spanish moss, and wild
clematis, and manzanita berries too, with which to decorate the
beloved camp; and even Dicky trotted back with his arms full of
gorgeous blossoms and grasses, which he arranged with great taste and
skill in mugs, bottles, and cans on the dining-table.

Can't you see what a charming place it was? And I have not begun to
tell you the half yet; for there was always a soft wind stirring the