3 o A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



the ink bottle. The sheet of paper is filled 

 with radiating and connecting lines marked 

 "box" and curly little rosettelike marks sur- 

 rounding figures. Corresponding figures in 

 the footnotes indicate the names of the 

 trees and shrubs which are to occupy these 

 positions in my garden hemlock, dogwood, 

 rhododendron, laurel, juniper, savin, cedar, 

 myrtle, ivy, thyme ; it is such a short list, and 

 there is such a worldful of things to choose 

 from ! 



I take up my pencil the red and blue one 

 and I begin on a fresh sheet of paper the list 

 of seeds which I would buy if I had wherewith 

 to buy, and wherein to sow. List-making is a 

 serious matter, even if one uses the blue end of 

 the pencil to check off the things one must have, 

 and the red end for the things one can do with- 

 out. All choice is serious, since life is only a 

 series of acceptances and rejections, and either 

 may be endless in its consequences. 



The lists vary with the weather. A sunny 

 day ? Oh, then by all means let me prepare a 

 retreat full of cool white and green things 

 against the summer heats ! Clouds, and a low 

 sobbing wind ? Let me have only yellow, sun- 



