NEGLECTED BEAUTY. 1 07 



out a pond to hold water; behind and around are 

 huge willows, and here is a perfect paradise for his 

 fowls. An arbor of stone down the swale, with a 

 few bits of hedges adjacent, all the work of his own 

 hand, makes a quaint but delightful combination. I 

 asked him how he came to think of it. "Why, they 

 came up there; and I didn't want to cut them after 

 they had got up, so I .trimmed them into hedges. 

 The arbor is just a lot of the stones that I wanted 

 picked up. It's better than a heap of stones, isn't it? 

 Folks ain't observing enough. If they were, nature 

 would help them to a good many nice-looking things, 

 just as easy as she does to so many old brush heaps 

 and stone piles. That's my reckoning. And them 

 things don't pay, either; but it does pay to have 

 things pretty and nice. If a fellow keeps his eyes 

 open he doesn't have to work so hard. You see I 

 didn't hardly have to touch these things just took 

 advantage of what nature did. Did you ever see 

 anything finer than that old rail fence? It's just a 

 wall of crimson, and I didn't plant one of them Vir- 

 ginia creepers; I only let them alone. They took 

 possession of the old fence and made it beautiful. 

 But it would pay anyone to plant such vines along 

 his old fences, just to look at. Don't you agree with 

 me?" I told him I thought I did. But said I, "What 

 have you got there ?" "Oh, that's a bunch of elms, 

 and those grapes came up and run all over them. 

 Just see how they hang down in ropes all over! It's 

 a great windbreak, that is; and there's another 

 mighty nice one over there those evergreens. I 

 haven't got so many jimcracks as most folks have 

 I never bought half so much; but you bet I look out 



