Excerpt from The Rose-Bush of a Thousand Years, Vol. 1 IT was during my student days in Europe that I chanced upon the ancient rose-bush of Hildesheim. So remote, so other-worldly was the picture of peace it presented in its dreamy setting among lowly graves in the cloistered garden of the monastery that it left an unforget able vision among my girlhood's fan cies. The memory of that strangely tranquil spot nested in a world of hu man struggle abided with me hauntingly and long afterward shaped itself into the following story. If by any chance I have succeeded in imparting to others a slight sense of the trance-like, tender joy that garden gave to me, I shall feel greatly gratified. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.