Within My Garden Walls 41 



gift was repeated and highly appreciated by myself. There 

 is a yearly crop of new books on Greece, and I confine my 

 souvenirs to Adam to them, for I notice that they elicit a 

 broader and more permanent smile than does any thing else 

 that I choose, and he never innocently asks me a few days 

 later, "Who gave you that?" as he has been known to do 

 about other tokens of affection which I have presented. I am 

 always a bit embarrassed at his laying the burden of posses- 

 sion on me, when it happens to be my gift to him, prayerfully 

 selected and done up in the whitest of tissue paper and the 

 palest of blue ribbons, with a sweet little sentiment inside; but 

 he never feels embarrassment over his mistake he simply 

 laughs and leaves me to ponder why my gifts make no perma- 

 nent impression on his memory. Perhaps the male brain is 

 not developed in appreciation, and we must not be too hard on 

 mental or physical incapacities. 



As I have not yet arrived at the age when birthdays no 

 longer recur, I have gradually acquired large additions to my 

 stock, and each year witnesses an extension of my territory. 

 The garden has crept up both banks until it is now one hun- 

 dred and twenty feet by sixty, and has almost reached the 

 house on the east side. Wherever it has been possible I have 

 given beds the protection of a stone wall from two to three feet 

 high and the advantages of a wall are so great that I must 

 dwell a moment on the subject, for it has a much wider appli- 

 cation than merely to my own use. In choosing the site of a 

 country house, one naturally selects an eminence, for the sake 

 of outlook, drainage and other considerations. New England 

 abounds in such sites, but these same eminences are full of 

 rocks and ledges; the soil is usually poor compared with low- 

 lying lands, and the question how to make things grow near 

 the house on a hot, dry, stony hillside becomes a serious prob- 

 lem. For this reason my solution of this particular difficulty 



