IV 

 THEIR GARDEN VACATION 



(From Mary Penrose to Barbara Campbell) 



WOODRIDGE, May 10. 

 "DEAR MRS. EVAN, 



" For the past week I have been delving in the seed 

 bed, and until it was an accomplished fact, that is as 

 far as putting on the top sheet of finely sifted dirt over 

 the seeds sleeping in rows and rounding the edges after 

 the most approved methods of bed-making, praying 

 the while for a speedy awakening, I had neither fingers 

 for pen, ink, and paper, nor the head to properly think 

 out the answer to your May-day invitation. 



" So you have heard that we are to take a long vacation 

 this summer, and therefore ask us to join your driving 

 and tramping trip in search of garden and sylvan ad- 

 venture; in short to become your fellow- strollers in the 

 Forest of Arden, now transported to the Berkshires. 



" It was certainly a kind and gracious thought of yours 

 to admit outsiders into the intimacies of such a journey, 

 and on the moment we both cried, ' Yes, we will go ! ' 

 48 



