THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



straw to disguise the fact, and whenever a tree 

 or anything worth preserving stood in the way 

 here came the loaded barrow and the barrow- 

 ist, hke a piece of artillery sweeping into action, 

 and a fill undistinguishable from nature soon 

 brought the path around the obstacle on what 

 had been its lower side, to meander on at its 

 unvarying rate of rise or fall as though nothing 

 — except the trees and wild flowers — had hap- 

 pened since the vast freshets of the post-glacial 

 period built the landscape. I made the drive 

 first, of steeper grade than the paths; but every 

 new length of way built, whether walk or road, 

 made the next easier to build, by making easier 

 going for the artillery, the construction train. 

 Also each new path has made it easier to bring 

 up, for the lawn garden, sand, clay, or leaf -mould, 

 or for hearth consumption all the wood which 

 the grove's natural mortality each year requires 

 to be disposed of. There is a superior spiritual 

 quality in the warmth of a fire of h-oak, h-ash, 

 and even h-ellum gathered from your own acre, 

 especially if the acre is very small and has con- 

 tour paths. By a fire of my own acre's "dead 



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