Free (8/13) At Home in Thrush Green by Miss Read Page A

George Curdle again I shall send you to Miss Watson. '
    This appalling threat succeeded in frightening John Todd, a hardened criminal of six years old, into temporary good behaviour, and the observation of the Thrush Green hedgerows continued.
    There was plenty to be seen. On the grass verges the pink trumpets of mallow bloomed. Nearer the edge grew the shorter white yarrow, with its darker foliage and tough stems, and in the dust of the gutter, pink and white striped bindweed showed its trumpets against a mat of flat leaves, as pretty as marshmallows, thought Agnes.
    Nearby was yellow silverweed with its feathery foliage, almost hidden by a mass of dog daisies, as the children called them. In the sunshine their pungent scent was almost overpowering, but three small brown and orange butterflies were giving the plants their attention, and the children were excited.
    'My grandpa,' said John Todd, anxious to reinstate himself in Miss Fogerty's good books, 'has got six drawers in a cabinet, full of butterflies with pins through 'em.'
    Some of the girls gave squeaks of disgust, and little Miss Fogerty herself inwardly recoiled from the picture this evoked.
    'They're dead all right, 'John Todd said hastily. 'He done 'em in in a bottle. Years ago, it was.'
    'Very interesting,' commented Agnes primly. One could not always believe John Todd's stories, and even if this one happened to be true, good manners forbade one to criticise the child's grandfather.
    'Now we will stop under this tree for a moment,' said Agnes, diverting the children's attention, and remembering 'the ever-changing panorama of the heavens' phrase of long ago. 'You may sit on the grass as it is quite dry, and I want you to notice the lovely creamy flowers hanging down. This is a lime tree, and if you breathe in you can smell the beautiful fragrance of the flowers.'
    Some unnecessarily squelchy indrawing of breath made Miss Fogerty clap her hands sharply.
    'Perhaps we will have a little nose-blowing first,' she said firmly. 'Hold up your hankies!'
    There were times, thought Agnes, trying to recapture the heady bliss of breathing in the perfume of flowering lime, when children were excessively tiresome.

    It was a good thing that Miss Fogerty had taken her children on the nature walk when she did, for a rainy spell of weather set in, when mackintoshes were the rule, and many of the fragrant lime flowers fell wetly to the ground beneath the downpour.

    The gardeners of Lulling and Thrush Green welcomed the rain. The broad beans plumped out, the raspberries flourished, red flowers burst out on the runner bean plants, and the thirsty flowers everywhere revived.
    Joan Young viewed the wet garden with less enthusiasm. In a week's time the buffet lunch was to take place, and that morning before breakfast, she had made a decision. She must ask Mrs Peters of The Fuchsia Bush if she could cope with the waiting on her guests, and with the main bulk of the catering.
    Her mother was still in a precarious state, needing to be in bed for most of the day, and Ruth, with two young children, was hard-pressed.
    Joan and Edward's only child, Paul, was away at school, and Joan was sharing the nursing duties as often as she could, but the extra work of the lunch party was beginning to worry her enormously.
    'If The Fuchsia Bush could take it off my shoulders,' she said to Edward, as they dressed, 'it would make it so much easier. You see, I had planned to collect plates and cutlery from no end of people, and napkins and serving bowls for the salads and trifles and whatnot.'
    'What about glasses?' asked Edward, putting first things first.
    'Oh, that's simple. The wine people are coping with that anyway. But with mother as she is, I want to feel I could slip away, if need be, without disrupting anything.'
    'You bob down to Lulling, and see Mrs Peters,' advised Edward, fighting his way into his pullover. He tugged it down, and went to look at his latest project through the streaming