onel--"that's the unfortunate part of
it. It wouldn't have distressed me if I could have replaced it from the
conservatory. This happens to be one of the few spots in the British
Isles where _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris_ is found in an undoubtedly
native situation."

"Oh, then that's worse than ever!" cried Isobel, with consternation. "I
know how very, very rare it is, because mother and I once found a
little piece in a cave in Cornwall."

"Did you? Are you sure it was an absolutely genuine specimen and not
naturalized?" asked Colonel Stewart, with keen interest.

"No; it was quite wild, for it was in a very out-of-the-way place by the
seashore."

"I hope you didn't take it?"

"Oh no! we didn't even pick a frond; and mother made me promise never to
tell any one where it grew, she was so afraid some one might root it
up."

"A sensible woman!" exclaimed the colonel. "Pity there aren't more like
her! Why people should want to grub up every rare and beautiful thing
they find in the country to plant in their miserable town gardens, I
can't imagine. It's downright murder. The poor things die directly in
the smoke. Look at these splendid roots that have been growing here
since I was a boy! I would rather they had destroyed every flower in my
garden than have worked such wanton havoc in the spot I value most in
all my grounds."

"It's most unfortunate we came this particular walk," said Isobel,
almost crying with regret. "You see, the Rokebys aren't used to the
country, so they don't seem to think about spoiling things. I believe I
could manage to plant these roots again; they're not very bad, and if I
tucked them well into the crevices of the rock I really fancy they'd
grow."

She picked up some of the ferns as she spoke, and began carefully to
replace them in the little ledges on the side of the rock, moistening
the roots first in the stream, and scraping up some soil with a thin
piece of shale which she made serve the purpose of a trowel.

"They haven't taken quite all," she said. "That beautiful clump up there
hasn't even been touched, and it may spread. I wish I could put back the
mountain ash. I simply can't tell you how sorry I am we ever came."

The colonel smiled.

"I don't blame _you_," he said. "It was those young heathens who ran
away. Their methods of studying botany were certainly of a rather
rough-and-ready description. I should have thought better of them if
they had stayed to apologize. Your friend