CONCLUSION 



in milk and a dish of cherries thoughtfully stoned, - '' For tin- 

 birds have n't any teeth, they tell me!" 



Always there is a pleasure in the beauty of the woods and a 

 desire to know the names of the flowers brought in. Nothing is 

 too much trouble if the result be satisfactory, and I have known 

 my maids to scour the woods for hours in search of some precious 

 branch and to get up at dawn to cut the flowers with the dew still 

 on them. From the beginning we have been assisted in the accom- 

 plishment of our cherished plans by the hearty cooperation and 

 real sympathy of our well-trained English gardener, who has be- 

 come as enthusiastic as ourselves over the preservation of all our 

 wildness. He has developed a genius for imitating Nature, taking 

 careful photographs of desirable bits of scenery with the object of 

 reproducing them on our own small estate. He is tireless in his 

 quest for wild flowers and will explore the country for miles around 

 in search of roots. A modest, self-contained man with unusual 

 executive ability, he is an apostle of Nature among his fellow- 

 gardeners and writes papers for the State Horticultural Society 

 advocating his purpose. 



In America life is more interesting because we are young: 

 we are the ancestors, so to speak, of a nation: we are establishing 

 universities and museums; erecting monumental buildings of all 

 sorts: and at last we have reached that desirable point in our civili- 

 zation when country life reveals its charms to us. In various parN 

 of our own land we are making beautiful homes, experimenting in 



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