xtent, be said of "The Story of a Short Life."
"Mother's Birthday Review" does not come under this heading, though I
well remember that part, if not the whole of it, was written whilst
Julie lay in bed; and I was despatched by her on messages in various
directions to ascertain what really became of Hampstead Heath donkeys
during the winter, and the name of the flower that clothes some parts
of the Heath with a sheet of white in summer.

In May 1883, Major Ewing returned home from Ceylon, and was stationed
at Taunton. This change brought back much comfort and happiness into
my sister's life. She once more had a pretty home of her own, and not
only a home but a garden. When the Ewings took their house, and named
it Villa _Ponente_ from its aspect towards the setting sun, the
"garden" was a potato patch, with soil chiefly composed of refuse left
by the house-builders; but my sister soon began to accumulate flowers
in the borders, especially herbaceous ones that were given to her by
friends, or bought by her in the market. Then in 1884 she wrote
"Mary's Meadow," as a serial for _Aunt Judy's Magazine_, and the story
was so popular that it led to the establishment of a "Parkinson
Society for lovers of hardy flowers." Miss Alice Sargant was the
founder and secretary of this, and to her my sister owed much of the
enjoyment of her life at Taunton, for the Society produced many
friends by correspondence, with whom she exchanged plants and books,
and the "potato patch" quickly turned into a well-stocked
flower-garden.

Perhaps the friend who did most of all to beautify it was the Rev, J.
Going, who not only gave my sister many roses, but planted them round
the walls of her house himself, and pruned them afterwards, calling
himself her "head gardener." She did not live long enough to see the
roses sufficiently established to flower thoroughly, but she enjoyed
them by anticipation, and they served to keep her grave bright during
the summer that followed her death.

Next to roses I think the flowers that Julie had most of were primulas
of various kinds, owing to the interest that was aroused in them by
the incident in "Mary's Meadow" of Christopher finding a Hose-in-hose
cowslip growing wild in the said "meadow." My sister was specially
proud of a Hose-in-hose cowslip which was sent to her by a little boy
in Ireland, who had determined one day with his brothers and sisters,
that they would set out and found an "Earthly Paradise" o