THE WORKS OF E. P. ROE

VOLUME ONE

NATURE'S SERIAL STORY


[Illustration: UNDER THE MISTLETOE]




PREFACE

"I am getting very tired," said a hard brain-worker to me once. "Life is
beginning to drag and lose its zest." This is an experience that can
scarcely happen to one who has fallen in love with Nature, or become
deeply interested in any of her almost infinite manifestations. Mr. and
Mrs. Clifford of my story are not wholly the creations of fancy. The aged
man sketched in the following pages was as truly interested in his garden
and fruit-trees after he had passed his fourscore years as any enthusiastic
horticulturist in his prime, and the invalid, whose memory dwells in my
heart, found a solace in flowers which no words of mine have exaggerated.
If this book tends to bring others into sympathy with Nature, one of its
chief missions will be fulfilled.

A love for the soil and all the pursuits of outdoor life is one of the
most healthful signs in a people. Our broad and diversified land affords
abundant opportunity for the gratification of every rural taste, and
those who form such tastes will never complain that life is losing its