I gathered to-day a small but bright, well-grown Oriental Poppy; and several of the Delphiniums, cut down in summer, have flowered beautifully a second time. One cannot provide for or be sure of these out-of-season garden surprises; but when they come by chance - some one year, some another - they are very delightful, interesting, and precious. They are like an unexpected piece of good fortune, or the return of a long-absent friend, who, one thought, had quite forgotten one, and who returns as on the day he left - as friendly, as kind, and as confidential. Such surprises push back for a moment the dial of the clock - a thing not to be despised even as a passing illusion, whether in the late autumn of a garden or of life.