The elm-tree avenue was all overgrown, the great gate was never unlocked, and the oldhouse had been shut up for several years.Yet voices were heard about the place, the lilacs nodded over the high wall as if they said,"We could tell fine secrets if we chose," and the mullein outside the gate made haste to reach thekeyhole, that it might peep in and see what was going on. If it had suddenly grown up like amagic bean-stalk, and looked in on a certain...