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a handsome house, 'twas merely to lodge a friend in comfort, 

 and for the rest, he but sought Nature's beauty and bounty 

 in wood and field and stream. He surely was a nature lover, y t ^ ^ 

 and after all, what's the harm of just wishing. We cannot /^**V 

 all hope to be Spartan Thoreaus and believe that a man is 

 rich "in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone." 

 Might it not make a difference what the things were? Epi- 

 grams are so much harder to live by than they are to con- 

 struct. I sympathise from the bottom of my heart withr'^ 

 that soldier of fortune, courtier, ambassador, servant, calli 

 him what you will, who said to his Oriental queen : 



l\ 



\ I throw my swords and lances down in the dust. 

 Do not send me to distant courts ; do not bid me undertake 

 new conquests. But make me the gardener of your 

 flower garden." \ "V i I 



Ah ! There spoke a man of metal who knew his own mind 

 in the choice of a vocation and was not afraid to speak it 

 either. A man who had served his queen and served her well 

 in time of war, or he would hardly dare make requests. But 

 in time of peace he far preferred gardening to embassies and 

 foreign travel, even with added honours. And if you re- 

 member, she did what he asked, too. jf I / / 



Through nearly a year now we have trod these woodland 

 trails and meadow paths and the formal walks of the garden, i 

 together reading Nature's secrets, inhaling her perfumes | 

 and jotting down her lessons on memory's pages. Nature's/ 



