all at once, Maria, that the doctrine of foreordination
holds good with things as well as people. That old mahogany never
belonged to me nor to Mother. It jest stopped over a while with us,
while it was on its way to the lady, and it was hers from the very day
it was made. I tell you, Maria, things belong to the folks that can
appreciate 'em. That furniture was jest chairs and tables and bedsteads
to Mother and me; but the lady knew all about it, when it was made and
where it was made, and the name of the man that first made it. And after
we'd looked at everything in the house, she took me out to see the
gyarden. Such a gyarden! She said it was jest like one she'd seen over
in England, and she was plantin' the same kind of flowers in it. The
beds were all sorts of shapes, and there was a pool of water in the
middle with water-lilies in it, and right by the pool was somethin' that
tells the time of day pretty near as well as a clock, jest by the shadow
on it. There was a hedge planted all around the gyarden, and the
gyardner was settin' out all kinds of flowers, and there was one bed of
pansies and another of geraniums in full bloom, and I said: 'I don't
know why you wanted my old-fashioned flowers, when you've got such a
gyarden as this.' And she smiled and looked down at the geraniums, and
says she: 'These flowers don't mean anything to me. But your roses and
honeysuckles and pinks mean everything; they are joy and sorrow and love
and youth,--everything I have had and lost.' Hearin' her talk, Maria,
was jest like readin' a book. And then, she took me around to another
gyarden at the back of the house, and showed me a bed, and all the roots
and slips that she'd got from me were growin' in it. The gyardner 'tends
to the rest of the flowers, but he never touches this bed; the lady
weeds it and waters it with her own hands. Now, I don't want anything
around me that reminds me of what I've had and lost, but she's one of
the kind that loves associations.

"No, I haven't re-furnished all the up-stairs rooms, Maria. What's the
use o' havin' furnished rooms that you never use? Yes, it does look
pretty empty, but after livin' in a jungle of old mahogany these many
years, you don't know what a blessed relief it is to have a few empty
spots about the house. Every house ought to have one or two empty
rooms, Maria, jest for folks to rest their eyes on.

"Yes, I did keep one piece o' the family furniture, but it wasn't
mahogany. It