MY OWN ACRE 



for they were purely ways of pleasure among 

 the flowers, and a loitering course seemed only 

 reasonable. But sinuous lines proved as dis- 

 appointing in the alleys as they were satisfying 

 out on the lawn, and by and by I saw that 

 whereas the bendings of the open lawn's borders 

 lured and rewarded the eye, the same curves in 

 the alleys obstructed and baffled it. The show 

 of floral charms was piecemeal, momentary and 

 therefore trivial. "Don't" be trivial ! 



But a cure was easy. I had to straighten but 

 one side of each alley to restore the eye's freedom 

 of perspective, and nothing more was wanting. 

 The American eye's freedom of perspective is 

 one of our great liberties. 



Oh, say, can you see ? 



I made this change, of course, on the side 

 nearest the straight, property-division bound, 

 where ran an invisible wire fence. Thus the bed 

 on that side was set between two straight par- 

 allels, while the bed on the lawn side remained 

 between waving parallels. This gave the best 

 simplicity with the least artificiality. And thus 



35 



