The Happy Garden 



An old flour-bin serves to keep the wind from 

 the spirit lamp, over which the coffee is boiled. 



The whole family assembles for lunch, includ- 

 ing the tortoise, Everard, the second of his line, 

 who is tethered by a long string and pegged down. 

 His predecessor was slain by the Newfoundland 

 dog, who was filled with a passionate scientific 

 curiosity. He wanted to know how the creature 

 worked, and what became of its head and legs, and 

 he was always turning it over on its back. One 

 day it disappeared, and was found some weeks 

 later on its back, dead, with head and legs hanging 

 limp ! It was to avert any such tragedy with the 

 present tortoise, who arouses just the same senti- 

 ments in Luath, that the long string was invented. 

 The cat plays with the string, and Luath follows 

 the tortoise round the garden, barking in protest 

 when it walks too far. It lives in the sunk garden, 

 and is visited night and morning by the dogs — 

 a silent, solitary existence, but I like to think it 

 is happy, and certainly it is energetic enough. 



Seen from the back the tortoise is like an old 

 woman in a poke-bonnet and a jet-beaded cape ; 

 one of those old ladies who have long since ceased 

 to be women to become bundles of clothes. 



Along the top of the garden grow a line of 

 roses, on chains and pillars — Crimson Ramblers, 



68 



