instead of
making the cold season so often a period of stress and strain and short
days stretched into long nights. If so, we have taken the responsibility
of acting for ourselves, of flying in nature's face in this as in many
other ways.

Does it ever seem to you strange that our contrariness began within the
year of our legendary creation, when Eve came to misery not by gazing in
a bonnet shop, but when innocently wandering in her garden, the most
beautiful of earth? By which we women gardeners should all take warning,
for though the Tree of Life may be found in every garden,

"Yet sin and sorrow's pedigree
Spring from a garden and a tree."

_December 10._ Snow a month earlier than last year, but we rejoice in
it, for it will keep the winds from the roots of the trees not yet
wholly settled and comfortable in their new homes. The young hemlocks
are bewitching in their wreaths and garlands, and one or two older trees
give warmth to the woods beyond the Opal Farm and sweep the low,
snow-covered meadow, that looks like a crystal lake, with their feathery
branches. The cedars were beautiful in the May woods and so are they
now, where I see them through the gap standing sentinels against the
white of the brush lot. It seems to me that we cannot have too many
evergreens any more than we can have too much cheerfulness.

[Illustration: THE LOW, SNOW-COVERED MEADOW THAT LOOKS LIKE A CRYSTAL LAKE.
Copyright, 1902, H. Hendrickson]

There are no paths in the garden now, a hint that our feet must travel
elsewhere for a time, and I confess that Lady Lazy has not yet
redeemed herself, and at present likes her feet to fall upon soft rugs.
The Infant's gray squirrels, Punch and Judy, and the persistent sparrows
have found their way to the house, taking their daily rations from the
roof of the shed. Punch, stuffed to repletion, has a _cache_ under the
old syringa bushes, the sparrows seeming to escort him in his travels to
and fro, but whether for companionship or in hope of gain, who can say?

The plans for the remodelling of Opal Farm-house are really very
attractive and yet it will be delightfully simple to care for. Maria and
_The Man_ have agreed better about them than over anything I have ever
heard them discuss; but then, as it is purely a business arrangement, I
suppose that Maria feels free from her usual pernickety restraint.

We surmise that either she has much more laid by than we supposed or she
is waxing ext