Mary's Meadow had been dear to us all, ever since I could remember.

It was always our favourite field.
We had coaxed our nurses there, when we could induce them to leave the high-road, or when, luckily for us, on account of an epidemic, or for some reason or another, they were forbidden to go gossiping into the town.

We had "pretended" fairies in the nooks of the delightfully neglected hedges, and we had found fairy-rings to prove our pretendings true.

We went there for flowers; we went there for mushrooms and puff-balls; we went there to hear the nightingale.

What cowslip balls and what cowslip tea-parties it had afforded us! It is fair to the Old Squire to say that we were sad trespassers, before he and Father quarrelled and went to law.