The Happy Garden 



general uncertainty of income : an affliction so 

 general that it can be confessed without shame. 

 The brown garden clamours for rare shrubs, but 

 the Almighty Purse says : 



" No." 



Timidly I whisper : 



" Just one magnolia ? " 



The Almighty Purse is inexorable. 



By hook or by crook — and this book is either 

 a hook or a crook — a magnolia must be procured : 

 and one solitary magnolia is unthinkable. There 

 must be at least four, and to keep them company 

 there must be azaleas, gorgeous masses of them : 

 and the lake will never really be a lake until it is 

 surrounded with Japanese maples. . . . There 

 are catalogues that make the mouth water, and 



much trouble has arisen from 's show of 



rhododendrons, and the Temple Show sows seeds 

 of discord every year. Flowers and frocks in the 

 harm they wreak by their subtle temptation to 

 extravagance, are as Woman and Man : 



" But if all the harm that's been done by men 

 Were doubled and doubled and doubled again, 

 And melted and fused into vapour and then 

 Were squared and raised to the power of ten, 

 There wouldn't be nearly enough, not near, 

 To keep a small girj, for the tenth of a year." 



And then, the delights and treasures revealed 



218 



