them. The cape consists of a flat bunch of yew 

 tied over the neck of the plant. 



The sweet peas, too, which were sown in Oc- 

 tober and are shooting above ground, have now 

 also been protected. Last year the October sow- 

 ing answered very well with the result that my 

 first crop of these fragrant and beautiful flowers 

 came very early. 



How many things have failed, though? It is 

 true we learn through our mistakes; but how 

 tediously and how slowly! It usually takes us 

 a lifetime to know that we have sipped but a 

 teaspoonful from the inexhaustible ocean of 

 knowledge and that we have not even digested 

 that small dose properly. 



To give a homely personal instance, my head, 

 like that, I am given to understand, of most 

 married men, is of an irregular configuration, and 

 hats shaped for it invariably relapse, a short time 

 after their purchase, into the usual oval (by 

 which I mean egg-shaped) ellipse and compress 

 my more highly developed bumps, which I must 

 assume a phrenological investigation would show 

 to be good ones. It took me over thirty years 



18 



