84 iiDLEHURST : 



admirable tool we call a shove-hoe. Learn to put on 

 the ground all the plant life it will carry nearly all 

 flower gardens are short of flowers all lawn, edgings, 

 stakes, gravel, and soil. Dodge in your hardy 

 annuals between your bulbs, and leave places for the 

 tender annuals, phlox and asters, zinnias, nicotianas, 

 which will overgrow the dead stems of tulips and 

 daffodils. When you have done all this ; and dis- 

 covered that there is one day of all the year proper 

 for each several operation (not a day to be got from 

 Almanacks, as our people like to have it), but one day 

 between certain limits, eminently fit by weather and 

 chance for the seed or the bud or the planting out ; 

 and that to catch this perfect day you must keep 

 yourself clear from entanglements of social engage- 

 ments a fortnight ahead, and so forth ; and when 

 you have learned all the intricate exceptions to the 

 rules (and in gardening, rules are the exception) ; and 

 when you are proof against disappointments very 

 near heartbreaking why, then you will be in the 

 way to grow flowers." 



Mrs. Kitty laughs, smelling at the bunch of nar- 

 cissus she carries. " If it really means all that, I 

 think I would rather go on as I am. I suspect that 

 for all you say, there's a sort of luck in it. And 

 you've got such a lovely soil ; haven't you ? Now 



