FEBRUARY 35 



and starry honeysuckle, and all the healthy, 

 hardy things that would love to climb over it 

 or lean against it ? Yes, I will have the lattice, 

 and the sweetpeas can grow on a netting some- 

 where else. 



The foot-rule goes into the drawer. The 

 lattice may be any length I choose, so there 

 is no need to measure it off. 



I count myself in few things else so happy as 

 that even on a seedman's list of flowers I can 

 read the whole story of my life. Thoreau says 

 that there is a flower for every mood of the mind, 

 and it has long been an article of faith with 

 me that the history of any country-bred heart 

 can be told by the flowers he loves best. A 

 child cares most for the things that are nearest 

 at hand. With the minted gold of the dande- 

 lions, and the measureless wealth of daisies 

 and buttercups he fills his hands and his heart 

 with happiness and splendour. Later, while 

 still unspotted by the world, he cares for those 

 which he can bend to the new uses which life 

 is every day discovering to him, and he enters 

 into that poetic relation with the Over Soul 

 which is expressed in the flower games, world 

 old, but new to every generation of men and of 



