OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 



Twice cut, forsooth ! Why, to this day, in the very 

 middle of paths made three years ago <" Three years 

 ago sir ! ">, you will discover here, there, and there again, 

 a healthy shoot, sappy and erect, balancing its bright 

 green plume right in the way, as if in defiance of all 

 extermination. 



No the most that can be claimed as a result of the war 

 which is still being waged upon the Brake is that, perhaps, 

 this pertinacious growth is beginning to betray some signs 

 of discouragement. The ranks of the legions, as they 

 make their periodical reappearance with an obstinacy 

 worthy of a better cause, grow a trifle thinner year by 

 year. 



" If you only cut them young," says Adam, consolingly 

 but with cruel imagery, " they say the roots will bleed to 

 death." 



This Corporal Nym would hint is as may be. As in 

 the case of our wonderful forbears, bloodletting in the 

 Spring, if not really conducive to better health, seems 

 to interfere little with their thriving. Meanwhile, happily, 

 as no scion of Pteris Aquilina <if it cannot really be pre- 

 vented from cropping up where it chooses) is now allowed 

 ever to reach its baleful maturity, the desired and much- 

 petted grass is gradually establishing itself. And, with 

 that eager optimism in gardening matters which is a 

 characteristic of the family at Villino Loki, we look 

 forward, in a few years, to the prospect of a suc- 

 cession of grassy carpets from crest to foot on our hill- 

 side. 



But this consummation, much desired, can, we are aware, 

 only be secured by unremitting labour. Sometimes the 

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