100 MARY'S GARDEN AND HOW IT GREW 



"Now we do the last thing for this fellow: we 

 shorten the branches and take off perhaps half the 

 last year's growth. Perhaps/' he said magnani- 

 mously, "this is what that poor fellow yonder," and 



he looked toward the 

 butchered forsythias 

 over the fence, 

 "perhaps this is what 

 he thought to do. 

 See, we make a slant- 

 ing cut and leave the 

 last eye on the out- 

 side so." 



"Why do you do 

 that?" asked Mary. 



"Why?" repeated 

 Herr Trommel. "So it will branch out, not in ; so 

 that the leaves that are peeking out shall see outside 

 and not look down the air-shaft, as my poor nephew 

 does in the city. 



"There, we are finished with that fellow," he said, 



straightening his back with a sigh of relief. "He 



feels very comfortable, and yet he is not hacked." 



f "It 's too bad about those forsythias next door," said 



/ Mary, noticing the contrast. "They must feel like 



DIAGRAM OF SHRUB SHOWING 

 " THINNING OUT " 



