MY OWN ACRE 



A LIFELONG habit of story-telling has much 

 to do with the production of these pages. 



All the more does it move me because it has 

 always included, as perhaps it does in most 

 story-tellers, a keen preference for true stories, 

 stories of actual occurrence. 



A flower-garden trying to be beautiful is a 

 charming instance of something which a story- 

 teller can otherwise only dream of. For such a 

 garden is itself a story, one which actually and 

 naturally occurs, yet occurs under its master's 

 guidance and control and with artistic effect. 



Yet it was this same story -telhng bent which 

 long held me back while from time to time I gen- 

 eralized on gardening and on gardens other 

 than my own. A well-designed garden is not 

 only a true story happening artistically but it 

 is one that passes through a new revision each 

 year, *'with the former translations diligently 



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