48 THE GARDEN OF A 



around his neck, and looking him in the eyes until 

 our noses met, a trick of childhood, to fix his atten- 

 tion, "I'm the same Barbara as ever, but my eyes 

 have seen and I've learned a few new things. I will 

 sew for the hospital, grow flowers and vegetables for 

 it, visit it, bring the poor convalescents over here to 

 sit in the sun, grow white flowers for those who 

 never go home, and give it a great deal more of 

 your time than I want to spare, but please, please, 

 let wages be wages, and charity, charity. The two 

 are harder to mix properly than mayonnaise in hot 

 weather. Don't you remember, dearest, what times 

 we have had with the people that you have tried to 

 serve without putting them under obligation, by let- 

 ting them think they were aiding you, while it usu- 

 ally ended, after much discomfort, in our being 

 considered under obligation ? People that were not 

 ill enough for the hospital, and yet needed tinkering. 

 I don't think I was troubled by it at the time, but I 

 observed, and the facts must have stowed themselves 

 away somewhere in my brain ; for since I have been 

 a wife, and the domestic side of me is developing, I 

 partly realize Aunt Lot's dilemmas, and the whole 

 fantastic crowd flit in front of me, exhibiting their 

 infirmities as if in warning. 



" There was the man with the rheumatism who 



