milk, butter, eggs, and vegetables, and pay fabulous prices.
 | An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|An orchard princess (IA orchardprincess00barbiala).pdf/41}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
Behind the studios the ground falls
away to the floor of the little valley
over which, girt with alder and willow,
a stream winds its way. It is a
noisy, flippant little stream, filled with
musical cascades and dotted with deep
brown pools which promise trout but
never fulfil the promise; it tinkles and
bubbles and gurgles and tries to impress
the world with a sense of its
importance. There is a good deal of
human nature about that stream.
Being only an ornament, it fancies
itself quite a bit as a necessity. However,
importance is only relative, and
I dare say to the trees and bushes that
line its banks that absurd little brook
seems a veritable Mississippi. Beyond
the stream the ground rises
again rather abruptly and climbs the
