It has--or would have--cheered up and sweetened everything.
Over asphalte it could not prevail, and it has prettily yielded to
asphalte, taking leave to live and let live. It has taken the little
strip of ground next to the asphalte, between this and the kerb, and
again the refuse of ground between the kerb and the roadway. The man of
business walking to the station with a bag could have his asphalte all
unbroken, and the butcher's boy in his cart was not annoyed. The grass
seemed to respect everybody's views, and to take only what nobody wanted.
But these gay and lowly ways will not escape a vestry.
There is no wall so impregnable or so vulgar, but a summer's grass will
attempt it. It will try to persuade the yellow brick, to win the purple
slate, to reconcile stucco. Outside the authority of the suburbs it has
put a luminous touch everywhere. The thatch of cottages has given it an
opportunity. It has perched and alighted in showers and flocks. It has
crept and crawled, and stolen its hour. It has made haste between the
ruts of cart wheels, so they were not too frequent.
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