202 TRENCH GARDENS 



returns after dark, cold days of early rising, when 

 breakfast is eaten by dim lamp-light and the agony 

 of cold fingers has to be endured in the daytime and 

 combated too at night, whilst penetrating winds 

 and sometimes snow are faced on the way to the 

 stoke-hole. 



It is a hard life certainly if weather is thought 

 about or when luxuries such as a big hot bath, soft 

 bed, heavily-curtained rooms, and artistic surround- 

 ings are desired ; but there are compensations that 

 amply repay, to my mind, the lack of these com- 

 paratively trivial comforts. Does not freedom 

 make up for many disagreeables ? Will not many 

 a governess or resident secretary be envious of a 

 profession that represents to a considerable degree 

 the delight of being one's own master ? Then, too, 

 the joy of feeling close to Nature and knowing that 

 flowers and plants, beautiful and helpless things, 

 are solely dependent upon those who tend them, 

 is worth much. The gratitude, too, that they most 

 surely evince for those who care for them is reward 

 in itself for the hardships of " roughing it " in a 

 cottage. 



Thus it is more especially to those who have 

 combated and not sat at ease that spring comes 

 with its perfect reawakening after expectant days, 

 when once again the distant woodland turns to a 

 faint rose-colour, proving as it deepens each hour 

 that small buds are swelling ready to burst open 

 upon a warm, sunny day. Then there is the coo of 

 the wood-pigeon to listen for amongst sheltering 

 pine trees, the place the cuckoo first haunts, and the 

 advent of the swallow to watch for ; but the greatest 



