204 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



joy when the Thanksgiving fires are lighted. 

 Here is what I should have if the Fates were 

 kind. 



There should be a background of irregularly 

 planted conifers white pines, firs, and hem- 

 locks which should have grown for many years 

 just beyond a high brick wall, which should 

 have gotten that mellow tone and roughened 

 texture which lends itself to all sorts of colour 

 schemes with a good will that is almost human. 

 If I could not have this I should like to shut 

 out my neighbours by a thicket of high shrubs, 

 the quick-growing elder or the slow-growing 

 dogwood, or the middle-growing sumach, if I 

 went to the woods for my things, with a spice 

 bush or two, for the sake of the yellow tufts of 

 aromatic florets which come before the snows 

 are fairly gone. Coeval with this are the 

 Forsythias, Fortunii, suspensa, viridissima, 

 quick-growing, clean-leaved, insect-free, and so 

 in haste to greet the returning sun, with their 

 joy-peal of yellow bells, that the stars have 

 not fallen from the hardy jessamine before 

 they begin to sing. While they are playing a 

 triple bob major, the crocus are abroad, at 

 their best if planted in thick mats close, but 



