n then a great dislike to lemon verbena, and that
I would have waited patiently outside a gate all the afternoon if I knew
that some one would kindly give me a sprig of lavender in the evening.
And lilies did not seem to me overdressed, but it was easy for me to
believe that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a great
yellow marigold, or even the dear little single ones that were yellow
and brown, and bloomed until the snow came.

I wish that I had lived for a little while in those days when lilacs
were a new fashion, and it was a great distinction to have some growing
in a front yard. It always seems as if lilacs and poplars belonged to
the same generation with a certain kind of New English gentlemen and
ladies, who were ascetic and severe in some of their fashions, while in
others they were more given to pleasuring and mild revelry than either
their ancestors or the people who have lived in their houses since.
Fifty years ago there seems to have been a last tidal wave of Puritanism
which swept over the country, and drowned for a time the sober feasting
and dancing which before had been considered no impropriety in the
larger villages. Whist-playing was clung to only by the most worldly
citizens, and, as for dancing, it was made a sin in itself and a
reproach, as if every step was taken willfully in seven-leagued boots
toward a place which is to be the final destination of all the wicked.

A single poplar may have a severe and uncharitable look, but a row of
them suggests the antique and pleasing pomp and ceremony of their early
days, before the sideboard cupboards were only used to keep the boxes of
strings and nails and the duster; and the best decanters were put on a
high shelf, while the plain ones were used for vinegar in the kitchen
closet. There is far less social visiting from house to house than there
used to be. People in the smaller towns have more acquaintances who live
at a distance than was the case before the days of railroads, and there
are more guests who come from a distance, which has something to do with
making tea-parties and the entertainment of one's neighbors less
frequent than in former times. But most of the New England towns have
changed their characters in the last twenty years, since the
manufactories have come in and brought together large numbers either of
foreigners or of a different class of people from those who used to make
the most of the population. A certain class of fami