Rebuilding the Garden of Eden 



19 



with the emulsion washed off. The house was 

 heated with an air-tight stove and a tile flue. 



Now I am not suggesting that you experiment 

 with any such makeshift house as that — it is too 

 expensive, aside from any other consideration. 

 That house went 

 to pieces in five 

 years, while a 

 modern standard 

 construction house 

 will last nobody 

 knows how many 

 joy-filled years. 



But when I could 

 crawl into that 

 little sunshine 

 shanty, and take 

 off my sheepskin 

 coat; and smell the Geraniums, and see their first 

 bright flowers opening; and watch the Cabbage 

 plants stretching their broad little leaves to get 

 every ray ; and feel the genial sunshine hitting the 

 back of my neck, and filtering down the full 

 length of my spine — then I knew that before 1 

 had become the owner of a greenhouse I had 

 never known the keenest joys of gardening! 

 When I looked out through that fraction-of-an- 

 inch crystal sheet that separated my tiny, cozy, 



The first greenhouse I ever owned was 

 only 15 feet wide and 20 feet long. That 

 little sunshine shanty showed me the 

 real joys of gardening. 



