The Ground-Ash | Page 3

sand, is so effectual in changing the colour of flowers.
It was a bleak gusty day in February, raining by fits, but not with
sufficient violence to deter me from an expedition to which I had taken
a fancy. Putting up, therefore, the head and apron of the phaeton, and
followed by one lad (the shrewd boy Dick) on horseback, and another
(John, the steady gardening youth) in a cart laden with tubs and sacks,
spades and watering-pots, to procure and contain the bog mould, (for
we were prudently determined to provide for all emergencies, and to
carry with us fit receptacles to receive our treasure, whether it
presented itself in the form of red earth or of red mud,) our little
procession set forth early in the afternoon, towards the wildest and
most dreary piece of scenery that I have ever met with in this part of the
country.
Wild and dreary of a truth was the Moss, and the stormy sky, the
moaning wind, and the occasional gushes of driving rain, suited well

with the dark and cheerless region into which we had entered by a road,
if a rude cart-track may be so called, such as shall seldom be
encountered in this land of Macadamisation. And yet, partly perhaps
from their novelty, the wild day and the wild scenery had for me a
strange and thrilling charm. The ground, covered with the sea-green
moss, whence it derived its name, mingled in the higher parts with
brown patches of heather, and dark bushes of stunted furze, was broken
with deep hollows full of stagnant water; some almost black, others
covered with the rusty scum which denoted the presence of the
powerful mineral, upon whose agency we relied for performing that
strange piece of natural magic which may almost be called the
transmutation of flowers.
Towards the ruddiest of these pools, situated in a deep glen, our active
coadjutors, leaving phaeton, cart, and horses, on the brow of the hill,
began rolling and tossing the several tubs, buckets, watering-pots, sacks,
and spades, which were destined for the removal and conveyance of the
much coveted-bog; we followed, amused and pleased, as, in certain
moods, physical and mental, people are pleased and amused at
self-imposed difficulties, down the abrupt and broken descent; and for
some time the process of digging among the mould at the edge of the
bank went steadily on.
In a few minutes, however, Dick, whose quick and restless eye was
never long bent on any single object, most of all when that object
presented itself in the form of work, exclaimed to his comrade, "Look
at those children wandering about amongst the firs, like the babes in the
wood in the old ballad. What can they be about?" And looking in the
direction to which he pointed, we saw, amidst the gloomy fir
plantations, which formed a dark and massive border nearly round the
Moss, our old friends Harry and Bessy Leigh, collecting, as it seemed,
the fir cones with which the ground was strewed, and depositing them
carefully in a large basket.
A manful shout from my companion soon brought the children to our
side--good, busy, cheerful, and healthy-looking as ever, and
marvellously improved in the matter of equipment Harry had been

promoted to a cap, which added the grace of a flourish to his bow;
Bessy had added the luxury of a pinafore to her nondescript garments;
and both pairs of little feet were advanced to the certain dignity,
although somewhat equivocal comfort, of shoes and stockings.
The world had gone well with them, and with their parents. The house
was built. Upon remounting the hill, and advancing a little farther into
the centre of the Moss, we saw the comfortable low-browed cottage,
full of light and shadow, of juttings out, and corners and angles of
every sort and description, with a garden stretching along the side,
backed and sheltered by the tall impenetrable plantation, a wall of trees,
against whose dark masses a wreath of light smoke was curling, whose
fragrance seemed really to perfume the winter air. The pig had been
bought, fatted, and killed; but other pigs were inhabiting the sty, almost
as large as their former dwelling, which stood at the end of their garden;
and the children told with honest joy how all this prosperity had come
about. Their father, taking some brooms to my kind friend Lady Denys,
had seen some of the ornamental baskets used for flowers upon a lawn,
and had been struck with the fancy of trying to make some, decorated
with fir cones; and he had been so successful in this profitable
manufacture, that he had more orders than he could execute. Lady
Denys had also, with characteristic benevolence, put the children to her
Sunday-school. One misfortune