Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 14, 2025
Meanwhile the boarders were discussing matters from their point of view. "It's just what I expected," said Norman Hallett, a tall, well-built boy, who was the eldest in the school. "Once open the door only a chink and in pours the whole town." He waved a half-eaten crust to illustrate the pouring in. "West had better drop the name of Brincliffe, and call us Elmridge Grammar School at once.
Clara soon made a discovery, however, of what her governess had noticed for a day or two, and the wonder was found on their own home-elms, those stately trees which had shaded the house ever since it was built, and from which the place got its pretty name Elmridge. "Well, dear," said Miss Harson, coming to the upper window from which an eager head was thrust, "what is it that you wish me to see?"
There were few idle wheel-barrows in Elmridge on Saturday afternoon. If you had passed along the dusty Brickland Road between four and five o'clock, you would have encountered a droll procession. One passer-by stopped to enquire if there was going to be a Battle of Flowers.
They ought to go into a good big sale, where there'll be plenty of biddin'; they aren't enough in themselves to draw buyers. And Mother says in her letter this mornin' they've heard of one that's bein' held in Elmridge on Saturday, a big one, in the Rookwood grounds. They call it a 'Nurserymen's Combine'; there's a many of them joining, and they're willin' to take in Father's little lot."
"Very well indeed!" was the reply; "I am glad you have not forgotten it. Of our cultivated cherries, we have here at Elmridge, besides the large black ones, which are so very sweet about the first of July, the great ox-hearts, which look like painted wax and ripen in June, and those very acid red ones, often called pie-cherries, which are used for pies and preserves.
"The spruce and hemlock," continued their governess, "and many of the other evergreens, we have at Elmridge, but I brought you here to-day for our drive that you might examine these magnificent pine trees, and so be better able to understand whatever we can find out about them this evening.
Miss Harson had taken the children in the carriage to a pine-grove some miles from Elmridge, and Thomas and the horses waited by the roadside while the little party walked about or stood gazing up at the tall slender trees that seemed to tower to the very skies.
Every green thing was now in full summer beauty, and daisies and buttercups gemmed the fields, while the garden at Elmridge was all aglow with blossoms, The children remembered their flower-studies of last year, and took fresh pleasure in the woods because of them; but the trees now seemed quite as interesting as the flowers had been.
Look around, Malcolm, at the peach, plum and cherry trees, which are the only members of the family that we have at Elmridge, and you will find gum oozing from the bark, especially where there are knotholes." Malcolm not only found the gum, but succeeded in helping himself to some of it, which he shared with his sisters.
"And did you think they were hung all over the Lombardy poplars?" asked Malcolm, in a broad grin. Edith laughed too, and Miss Harson said smilingly. "I thought that the birds about Elmridge did a great deal of singing, and the blue-birds and robins kept it up all day.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking