CHAPTER XVII 

 The Culmination of Spring 



IF a fairy godmother or a talking fish offered me three 

 wishes I think one would be to have the clock stopped 

 for six months on a fine morning towards the end of May. 

 Then, perhaps, I might have time to enjoy the supreme 

 moment of the garden. And I am not at all sure the 

 second wish would not be used to extend the period. It 

 must be after those plaguey Ice Saints have finished play- 

 ing the fool with the weather, and when there comes a 

 spell that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just the 

 climate one would expect to meet with in Heaven, and in 

 England sometimes comes to us in late May and Sep- 

 tember. The tall Tulips would be at their best, Iris 

 florentina and its early companions in full glory, Lilacs 

 and Apple-blossom, Hawthorn and Laburnum, all masses 

 of flower. Trees full of tender green, yet not too densely 

 clad to prevent our seeing the architecture of the boughs. 

 The Mulberry would be in leaf and showing that frosts 

 have ceased, for it is the wisest of all trees, and always 

 waits till it is quite safe before it opens its buds. I like 

 to get all my gardening friends to visit me in May ; they 

 respect me and my gardening then, whereas later on they 

 are apt to be critical, seeing how some plants begin to 

 burn up, and noting the poverty of our soil, as shown by 

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