The Happy Garden 



south side, Elisabeth on the north, and I will 

 stand between, down in the pit : 



"It matters not Jww strait the gate, 

 How charged with punishments the scroll, 

 I am the master of my fate, 

 I am the captain of my soul." 



Henleyism hits Elisabeth hard. It hits her fan- 

 tastic bureaucracy in the wind and shatters her 

 dream of an England which is a gigantic work- 

 house. If they want to tax me out of existence, 

 and drag me off to the State alms-house they will 

 have to take my garden too. ... If they destroy 

 my garden, as it was long ago prophesied that 

 Demos would destroy everything fair and lovely, 

 they will be hard put to it to keep me from making 

 another, toy-river and all, in my cubicle. . . . 

 Nothing will induce me to wear a uniform, and one 

 outstanding rebel will sweep away all the drab 

 schemes of substituting an Inferno of Negation for 

 the existing slums. . . . My faith is that nothing 

 but gardens and the atmosphere of gardens can 

 do away with slums. There is a slum in the soul 

 of almost everyone, and until those slums are 

 abolished, there will be no means of doing away 

 with the black spots of bricks and mortar in the 

 towns. . . . 



" Have you a slum in your soul, Jane ? " 

 196 



