CHAPTER VI. 



THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 



FOND as we are of the wilderness, when it comes to our daily 

 food we have extremely civilized ideas, so of course a kitchen- 

 garden was a necessity. Now this kind of a garden should be near 

 the house and yet completely hidden from it. Ours lies at the end 

 of the pergola, in a natural hollow in the woods, screened from the 

 lawn by trees and shrubs and all manner of low underbrush. A 

 winding path, with big boulder steps, leads down to the lilac-framed 

 gateway; and as the open, sunlit space breaks upon one, the vision 

 seldom fails to elicit an exclamation of pleasure even from the least 

 enthusiastic of our guests. 



We had cleared but an acre for this garden, as we could not 

 bear to sacrifice any more trees. In sheer desperation at our obsti- 

 nacy, the Man of Many Maps wrote us that since we had such an 

 objection to cutting down trees he should advise us to buy our vege- 

 tables. Even this piece of sarcasm failed to move us, and we do 

 buy our potatoes to this day. Can a kitchen-garden without flowers 

 or trees or shrubs be beautiful and still thoroughly practical ? We 



think it can. To be sure its outline must be severe, since neither 



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