Front Dooryards 53 



changed character ; the tender blooms vanished, 

 but the tall shrubs and the Peonies and Flower de 

 Luce sturdily grew and blossomed, save where that 

 dreary destroyer of a garden crept in — the desire 

 •for a lawn. The result was then a meagre expanse 

 of poorly kept grass, with no variety, color, or 

 change, — neither lawn nor front yard. It is ever 

 a pleasure to me when driving in a village street 

 or a country road to find one of these front yards 

 still enclosed, or even to note in front of many 

 houses the traces of a past front yard still plainly 

 visible in the flourishing old-fashioned plants of 

 many years' growth. 



