26 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



provocation and for open-mindedness, except 

 on subjects on which he knows that his opinions 

 cannot be bettered, a gardener is an honest 

 man. It is because of our faith in him that 

 we accept this picture of a rose-bush whereon 

 petal touches petal from root to crown ; that we 

 believe in this bed of pansies, whereof no leaf 

 shows, but only a sheet of wide-eyed blossoms, 

 and that we are eager to credit this bank 

 of forget-me-nots with florets as large as 

 sixpences. In our hearts we know that such 

 roses and pansies are not, and that such forget- 

 me-nots will never be. Yet year by year we 

 linger over those enchanting woodcuts with an 

 interest more perennial than any perennial 

 whose virtues they celebrate. 



From the table beside which I sit, I put 

 away everything but an ink bottle, a pen, a 

 pencil red at one end and blue at the other 

 a foot-rule, and some sheets of paper. I make 

 believe, to use the happy phrase of childhood, 

 that the foot-rule is a tape-reel hundreds of feet 

 long, but, as one must accommodate one's 

 desires to one's environment at times, the foot- 

 rule answers very well as an ordinary sur- 

 veying outfit. Where I need to mark a circle 



