v.] HARRY’S DREAM. 261

 

Upon the first, where the observation let fall had been
perfectly sincere, there was much blossom, and the
buds, which were numerous, were inscribed with such
words as ‘It is really so very long since we met.’ ‘It
is always a pleasure to me when we run against each
other” ‘How pleasant it is for two friends to meet
unexpectedly!’ The second, on the contrary, having
evidently been a mere polite remark with no real
feeling in it, had grown up a sickly plant, with little
blossom and few buds, the latter bearing inscriptions
already blighted, such as ‘I never expected to meet
you here. ‘How tiresome one’s acquaintances are,
meeting one at every corner!’ ‘Dear me, what a bore!
here is somebody else one must speak to!’ remarks
which may often have crossed the minds of people
who have saluted their acquaintances with civil words
without civil thoughts, but which it would be exceed-
ingly disagreeable to have paraded in the form of buds
on a tree immediately after they had been made.
Harry told his companions as much, but they only
laughed, and said it was to expose the humbug of
mortals that Fairies kept such things, and that they
were useful as a warning to the inhabitants of Fairy-
land itself.

The next glass-house was entirely filled with a
particular kind of shrub which the little brown gentle-
man informed Harry was called the Good-Intention-
tree. There were numerous specimens, ‘for,’ said the
owner, ‘so many people have good intentions in your
world that we encounter no difficulty whatever in ob-
taining as many as we like. Some, you see, blossom
and come to maturity as well as we could wish, but