218 EARLY SUMMER 



Preparations for the flower show have gone on 

 for many weeks, and with some depression I am 

 told that the pots of tall sweet-peas that were 

 intended for our stall will not be ready quite in 

 time. However, there must be plenty of other 

 flowers and vegetables, to judge by the vigorous 

 " potting on " and continual " seed sowing " that 

 has been in progress throughout past weeks. 



Our " College Draughtsman," too, has been kept 

 busy, for upon her has fallen the responsibility of 

 painting a proper background for the stall, where- 

 by all can be shown off to advantage. I some- 

 times suspect that her family and friends rather 

 dread the advent of these college exhibitions 1 

 The estate carpenter, a burly, usually immovable 

 Sussex man, becomes, by means of persuasion, 

 so active in our cause that broken gates in 

 need of repair, doors that have dropped and 

 won't shut, are all put upon one side whilst our 

 requirements are attended to. In the pictur- 

 esque surroundings of the wood-yard, beneath 

 tall elm trees, planks are sawn in readiness for the 

 supporting framework at the flower stall. This, 

 however, is only the commencement, for pots of 

 paint in red, white, and blue colours are freely 

 used to decorate the fantastic eighteenth-century 

 style of ornament with which it is made gay. All 

 this activity is supposed to be carried on in secret, 

 and much connected with the work lies hidden 

 within a dusty loft high up in the clock tower, a 

 veritable paradise of artistic disorder and untidi- 

 ness. The days pass by and we draw nearer to 

 the eventful one ; hence, through lack of time, 



