Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III UNDER THE OLD WALNUT-TREB '' Thus oft the mourner's wayward heart Tempts him to hide his grief and die, Too feeble for confession's smart, Too proud to bear a pitying eye ; " How sweet in that dark hour to fall On bosoms waiting to receive Our sighs, and gently whisper all! They love us—will not God forgive?" Keble's Christian Year. Strangers passing through Sandycliffe always paused to admire the picturesque old Grange, with its curious gables and fantastically twisted chimneys, its mullion windows and red brick walls half smothered in ivy, while all sorts of creepers festooned the deep shady porch, with its long oaken benches, that looked so cool and inviting on a hot summer's day, while the ever open door gave a glimpse of a hall furnished like a sitting-room, with a glass door leading to a broad gravel terrace. The smoothly-shaven lawn in front of the house was shaded by two magnificent elms; a quaint old garden full of sweet-smelling, old-fashioned flowers lay below the terrace, and a curious yew-tree walk bordered one side. This was Mr. Ferrers' favourite walk, where he pondered over the subject for his Sunday's sermons. It was no difficulty for him to find his way down the straight alley. An old walnut-tree at the end with a broad circular seat and a little strip of grass round it was always known as the "Master's summer study." It was herethat Margaret read to him in the fresh dewy mornings when the thrushes were feeding on the lawn, or in the evenings when the birds were chirping their good-nights, and the lark had come down from the gate of heaven to its nest in the corn-field, and the family of greenfinches that had been hatched in the branches of an old acacia-tree were all asleep and dreaming of the " early worm." People used to pity Ma...