142 THE OUTDOOR GARDEN 



Thus, work goes on uninterruptedly and because 

 of the large variety of different operations groups 

 of workers are to be seen dispersed all over the 

 sloping hill-side garden. Strenuously and happily 

 they perform to the best of their ability tasks that 

 must be hurried on, so that no unforeseen circum- 

 stance or weather change shall find us unprepared. 



Even after dark, there is work for those who are 

 on what is called the " Stoking Roster." Cold and 

 tedious as it may seem, they soon realise that if 

 they love their plants they will willingly tend them 

 night and day, just as a nurse patiently minds her 

 charges, for the health and beauty of plants materi- 

 ally depend, as they do also with children, upon a 

 steady, warm temperature. 



Sometimes, upon a cold, frosty night, I pay a 

 surprise visit to watch how they do it. It is well 

 worth leaving the glowing log fire and one's books 

 to steal out into the wonderful moonlight for 

 a while and see that wide expanse of starlit sky 

 and the valley with its gleaming water. Perhaps 

 a quick-speeding London train, brilliantly lit up 

 and with glowing sparks flying from the engine, 

 emerges round the bend of the hills and glides 

 snake-like through the dark. There is something 

 almost mythical, supernatural about it, taking the 

 mind back to those monsters of old that brave 

 knights went out to wrestle with and overcome. 



Then, as I silently stand waiting, absorbed in all 

 this beauty of the " glittering plain," a red hurri- 

 cane lantern comes swinging in at the blue gate 

 and a man's heavy footstep tramps towards the 

 potting-shed. Two students are already there, but 



