MAY 95 



which look at it had as yet no sense of propor- 

 tion ; and yet it was but a little orchard, after 

 all, hedged in between a bit of sloping meadow 

 and an ancient wood. The meadow was an 

 ocean, if it chanced to be sown with oats, 

 rippled into waves by wandering breezes. It 

 was the field of the Cloth of Gold when wheat 

 was ripening there. Armies encamped on it 

 what time hay was drying in tiny cocks, and it 

 was a village of Indian tepees when corn 

 was gathered into pointed stocks. And so, 

 too, the wood was not simply a little wood. 

 It was the Schwartz-wald ; it was the forest 

 of Arden ; it was the home of Robin Hood 

 and his merry men, the lair of fearsome giants 

 and trolls, and winged dragons. It was the 

 jungle in which wild beasts and painted 

 savages skulked ; it was the haunt of elves 

 and fairies. Enchanted castles were hidden in 

 its depths ; robber caves were shadowed by its 

 great trees ; and beautiful princesses and 

 knights, without fear and without reproach, 

 wandered through its leafy glades by moon- 

 light. 



And the garden through which a pathway 

 led to the pear-trees growing at the orchard's 



