224 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



movement, or their tricks with beads of dew 

 and drops of rain. Did they frolic thus all 

 the summer, or have they waited for cool 

 nights for their madcap pranks? 



In August we scorned the salvias. Now 

 they find their place if they are planted in 

 our neighbour's garden, and the neighbour 

 keep at that discreet distance which allows 

 the planes of air to do their task of blending 

 and softening. It is a shame to think so ill 

 of the good-natured braggart who makes so 

 fine and quick a growth, and who is so lavish 

 with his spires of scarlet bloom. No doubt 

 he comforts many a heart with his cheerful 

 bravado, and as he is an adaptable creature, 

 asking little and giving much, he has his own 

 large uses, and it is as little as we can do to 

 ask his pardon for our ungracious thoughts. 

 Not everybody likes scarlet, that is all. 



Zinnias are the best October flowers. There 

 are now strains that rival the rose in the depth 

 of their crimson and the form of their flower- 

 heads. There are oranges and yellows, and 

 ochres and dull whites, which are most satisfy- 

 ing planted against a background of spirea 

 prunifolias and Thunberg's barberry, which 



