CONCLUSI X 



something, if it be only the names of the birds and the flowers and 

 the plants. By looking over one's own list each Spring, renewing 

 the acquaintance as it were, soon the old familiarity returns. But it 

 is the doing, after all, which gives the most pleasure! The tiny oak 

 that I raised from the acorn and after two years planted in an open 

 space where some day it will extend its branches over every passer- 

 by, suppose at present it /.v only ten inches high and I can count 

 its eight or ten leaves! And the young Manchurian bird-cherry 

 which looks like a man's walking-stick thrust in the ground, do 

 I not see in imagination its luscious fruit on spreading boughs filled 

 with song birds grateful for their feast ? That horse-chestnut sap- 

 ling which we rescued from a tangle of grapevine and willow and 

 gave breathing space in the open, do not its leaves turn a deeper 

 red and its bursting buds give us a keener joy for all our care ? Do 

 the long years of waiting oppress me? I have no time for that: 

 each day brings so much of present interest that the hours s< cm 

 overflowing. The dividing line between work and play has been 

 eliminated: the daily task has become the daily joy! And it is 

 astonishing what can be done in one lifetime with energies properly 

 directed. The beautiful Hunnewcl! estate at Wellesley, Massa- 

 chusetts, with its huge forest trees, its elaborate and ancient-looking 

 Italian garden, its wonderful flowering shrubs, was within the 

 memory of men now living a barren field covered with stones. 

 An Enthusiast is never wholly satisfied until she has persuaded 



some one else to go and do likewise. Her happiness is such that 



269 



