50 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



I should say triologue, for Anastasia has decided opin- 

 ions, and has turned into a brooding raven, informing 

 us constantly of the disasters that have overtaken vari- 

 ous residents of the place who have taken vacations, 

 the head of one family having acquired typhoid in the 

 Catskills, a second injured his spine at the seaside by 

 diving in shallow water, while the third was mistaken 

 for a moose in Canada and shot. However, her in- 

 terest is comforting from the fact that she evidently 

 does not wish to part with us at present. 



" It must be considered that if we take a really com- 

 fortable trip of a couple of months' duration, and Bart's 

 chief is willing to allow him a three months' absence, 

 as it will be his first real vacation since we were married 

 six years ago, it will devour the entire sum that we have 

 saved for improving the farm and garden. 



" You live on the place where you were born, which 

 has developed by degrees like yourselves, yet you 

 probably know that rescuing, not an abandoned farm 

 but the abode of ancient and decayed gentility, even 

 though the house is oak-ribbed Colonial, and making it 

 a tangible home for a commuter, is not a cheap bit of 

 work. 



"As to the Infant to take a human four-and-a- 

 half- year-old travelling, for the best part of a summer, 



