"JOIE DE VIVRE" 201 



whilst we who live near camps have become 

 accustomed to lines of white canvas tents or wooden 

 huts with the Union Jack flying above them, 

 whilst the novelty of having railways guarded 

 by soldiers has worn off, and no longer are we sur- 

 prised when the rainbow-hued airship floats silently 

 round upon its mission of investigation, the tension 

 of past weeks has become suddenly relaxed. 



Is it wrong that it should be so ? 



Those who live in towns can gain no such relief. 

 With them occupation and feverish activity come 

 to the rescue ; without these they could hardly 

 tolerate the daily, hourly news-headings that take 

 away from restf ulness . A gardener 's life is a different 

 one, and so all-absorbing is it that, to some, it might 

 almost appear as if it encouraged selfishness or a lack 

 of keen interest in other people's concerns ; yet in 

 reality it represents from early dawn to late at 

 night the studied devotion to the requirements of 

 plants. There is but little time left for considera- 

 tion of personal matters, and for this reason it is 

 such a wonderfully stimulating life for highly strung, 

 nervous people, because it combines activity with 

 calming influences. They have no time in which 

 to think of their own weaknesses or ailments. 



So for one brief afternoon let us allow the 

 possibility of joie de vivre to enter again into our 

 hearts as it was wont to do each spring before the 

 Great War wearied with its battering guns, its 

 sorrow and desolation. 



I think only those who have been gardeners in 

 the true, active sense, doing hard winter's work, can 

 fully appreciate and value the joyfulness that re- 



