FRANKNESS AND GARDENING 213 



holders made of bamboos of different lengths, intended 

 evidently to hang against door-jambs or in hallways. 

 The pith was hollowed out here and there, and the hole 

 plugged from beneath to make little water pockets. 

 These did admirably for a season, but when the wood 

 dried, it invariably split, and treacherous dripping fol- 

 lowed, most ruinous to furniture. 



A few weeks back, when looking at some mossed and 

 gnarled branches in the woods, an idea occurred to Bart 

 and me at the same moment. Why could we not use 

 such pieces as these, together with some trunks of your 

 beloved white birch, to which I, via the screen at Opal 

 Farm, was becoming insensibly devoted at the very 

 time that you wrote me? 



Augur holes could be bored in them at various dis- 

 tances and angles, if not too acute; the thing was to 

 find glass, in bottle or other forms, to fit in the openings. 

 This difficulty was solved by The Man from Everywhere 

 on his reappearance the night before the Fourth, after 

 an absence of a whole week, laden with every manner 

 of noise and fire making arrangement for the Infant, 

 though I presently found that Bart had partly instigated 

 the outfit, and the two overgrown boys revelled in fire- 

 balloons and rockets under cover of the Infant's en- 

 thusiasm, much as the grandpa goes to the circus as an 



