At all events we plunged blithely into the autumn cleaning, saying to ourselves easily; "And we shall probably be invited out a good deal, certainly while the dining room is being done over." Mary Byers Smith is in measure to blame for our assumption that no one else would be as superior as we, that in most families. as she says: "Nobody really house-cleans any Lhree ceiling-high step-tadders at a time, Creaking with energetic splash—quick talk, Keen. smell of soapsuds met with the soft air From open windows overlooking beds Of trillium, pansies and forget-me-not, And through the sounds and through the smells, the felts, Swollen with freshets, yellow in the sun—These are The memories that come to baffled eyes, As to old generals swept aside by new.
Mary's neighbours may not belong to the super-cleanly. Unfortunately ours do. We had confidently expected to cadge most of our meals out but instead we found hungry souls dropping in for tea, and explaining as they swept the tea-wagon bare, "Heaven and the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.