158 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



hunger. It certainly proves that advanced as we are 

 supposed to be to-day as links in the evolutionary 

 chain, we have partially relapsed and certainly show 

 strong evidences of sheep ancestry. 



Haven't you noticed, Mrs. Evan, how seldom people 

 are content to accept one's individual tastes or desire to 

 do a thing without a good and sufficient reason therefor ? 

 It seems incomprehensible to them that any one should 

 wish to do differently from his neighbour unless from 

 financial incapacity; the frequency with which one is 

 suspected of being in this condition strongly points to 

 the likelihood that the critics themselves chronically 

 live beyond their means and in constant danger of col- 

 lapse. 



If this was thought of us a few weeks ago, it seems to 

 have been sidetracked by Maria Maxwell's contribution 

 to, and management of, the golf tea. She is said not 

 only to have compounded viands that are ordinarily 

 sold in exchange for many dollars by New York 

 confectioners, but she certainly made more than a pre- 

 sentable appearance as "matron" of the receiving com- 

 mittee of young girls. Certainly Maria with a music 

 roll, a plain dark suit, every hair tethered fast, and com- 

 mon-sense shoes, plodding about her vocation in snow 

 and mud, and Maria "let loose," as Bart calls it, are a 



