OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



placed in her very own garden, would always recall 

 the far-off lover? Or did a son mindful of his moth 

 er's taste, take pleasure in thus ministering to her small 

 joys? I know that each year I welcome its gay pres 

 ence, its unquenchable spirit, its childlike brightness. 

 Like most ambitious youth, however, it dislikes to con 

 form to rule and at least once a fortnight the san- 

 vitalia and the ageratum with any other leaves which 

 stray over the path have to be cut back to the -raised 

 brick border. It used actually to hurt me snipping 

 that splendid growth, but the after-effect is so fine that 

 my heart has become hardened. A formal garden 

 must preserve a certain amount of formality especially 

 as to its walks, and without this cruel curtailment there 

 would soon be no walks. 



In tiny crevices of the stone wall a yellow columbine 

 seeded itself one year, and now season after season until 

 frost, four separate plants bloom vigorously. Of 

 course they have attention, a seed is never permitted 

 to mature, but they repay our care tenfold. No gar 

 den is complete without heliotrope. Ours nestles into 



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