The noise they made was audible four or five yards away, and upon looking closer I found the palings all scored and marked in short shallow grooves.

The scores and marks extended along that part of the palings where the sunshine usually fell; there were none on the shady side, the wasps preferring to work in the sunlight.
Soon the clouds began to break, and then the sun shone on innumerable rain-drops.

I at once started forth, knowing that such a storm is often followed by several lesser showers with brief intervals between.
The deserted ice-house was rarely visited--only, perhaps, when some borage was wanted to put in summer drinks.

For a thick growth of borage had sprung up by it, where perhaps a small garden patch had once been cultivated, for there was a pear-tree near.

The plant, with its scent of cucumber, grew very strong; the blue flowers when fallen, if they had not been observed when growing, might be supposed to have been inserted exactly upside down to their real manner of attachment.
In autumn the leaves of the pear-tree reddened, and afterwards the ivy over the entrance to the ice-house flowered; then in the cold months of early spring the birds came for the ivy-berries..