straight rows, one after the other; but Mary did not mind that.

While she was working she heard the tramp of a horse's hoofs, and
looking up saw the big bluff Squire riding toward her. The big Squire
was very fond of children, and whenever he rode near the little white
cottage he stopped to have a word with Mary. He was old and
bald-headed, and he had side-whiskers that were very red in color and
very short and stubby; but there was ever a merry twinkle in his blue
eyes, and Mary well knew him for her friend.

Now, when she looked up and saw him coming toward her flower-garden,
she nodded and smiled to him, and the big bluff Squire rode up to her
side, and looked down with a smile at her flowers.

Then he said to her in rhyme (for it was a way of speaking the jolly
Squire had),

"Mistress Mary, so contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With dingle-bells and cockle-shells
And cowslips all in a row!"

And Mary, being a sharp little girl, and knowing the Squire's queer
ways, replied to him likewise in rhyme, saying,

"I thank you, Squire, that you enquire
How well the flowers are growing;
The dingle-bells and cockle-shells
And cowslips all are blowing!"