OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



water views." And so our choice was made, one by 

 one five trees were marked for destruction, two of 

 them walnuts over a hundred feet high! And the day 

 arrived. While the Constant Improver bravely man 

 aged the undertaking, I fled to the farther end 

 of the place and worked desperately to avoid hearing 

 those sounds of Fate, those crashing blows. So skill 

 fully did the men work taking the huge trees down in 

 sections that, although in full leaf, none of the sur 

 rounding shrubs were hurt and when the debris had 

 been carried away, the result was really surprising. A 

 water picture was revealed, framed in quivering 

 greenery, where white sails danced, where cloud banks 

 reflected the glory of the setting sun, where round, ma 

 jestic, crimson, rose the hunter's moon. 



Encouraged by this procedure, we developed in 

 hardihood and demanded more openings. A tall 

 young poplar draped in a toga of wild grape such as 

 only Nature can arrange had expanded with the years 

 until it completely blocked our view of the water at 

 the west. 



150 



