An Incipient Garden 13 



brids;" the C's were characterized by "richness of color and 

 profusion of flowers" and so on with undiminished eloquence 

 to Z Zinnia, where my intoxicated eyes caught "one of the 

 finest plants . . . commence to bloom in June and continue 

 throughout the season . . . require little care . . . any 

 common garden soil . . . prize strain . . . unsurpassed.'* 

 Ah ! here was a fulfilment of a life-long desire; here were quan- 

 tities of lilies that toiled not, and nobody had to toil; no more 

 fifty buckets of water at night; no more digging and manuring 

 beds two feet deep; " any common soil" would do. Had I not 

 the grower's word for it ? and we had a hundred acres of just 

 such soil needing zinnias to hide the poverty-stricken grass 

 that grew in segregated clumps over our barren hill-top. What 

 cared I for snow-drifts, for howling winds, and 20 below zero 

 weather ? Airily I spent my days on the lawn (in my mind) 

 gently plucking flowers that never grew less than two feet 

 high and eight inches across. The sun shed only a soft genial 

 warmth; the sky was always blue, except when it showered 

 agreeably. I was in the gardener's Paradise, and had a glori- 

 ously happy time; and my lists grew. 



One day, when looking out of the window, it occurred to me 

 that, with so many prospective treasures, I ought to have a 

 garden to plant them in. Surely a garden not patches on 

 the lawn; a garden where some day perhaps I could walk, and 

 I resolved if that day ever came, I shouldn't go trailing long 

 drabbly white garments about damp walks in the dreamy ab- 

 stracted fashion of damsels such as artists have loved to paint; 

 for my garden was going to be damp, perpetually damp, 

 walks and all; it would have to be if it bore those eight-inch 

 flowers. And thus did I go on planning the garden that Eve 

 should make. Why not take the very spot before my eyes? 

 Was it not sheltered on the north by a high stone wall and 

 apple trees, that, at the proper moment, should form a pic- 



