60 THE GARDEN OF A 



As Peter's work was chiefly with the soil, he was 

 content, the fruit and vegetables throve, the flowers 

 languished. As Aunt Lot kept but one maid, 

 Karen often helped us in emergencies, for a woman 

 likes to have a little pin money. In those days she 

 was always begging to do some little task in return 

 for the many ways in which we aided her, and Aunt 

 Lot took great pains in showing her how to cut and 

 fashion over my clothes for the girls, as I was at 

 least two sizes taller than either. How glad I am 

 that I am fairly tall and quite slender ; it is so con- 

 venient to be able to have a long reach in tying up 

 vines, and then there is so much stooping to be done 

 in gardening, and if one is stout, the flesh must 

 always interfere like an impediment in a door- 

 hinge. 



During four years, agriculturally speaking, we had 

 a time of peace and prosperity. Peter's ideas as to 

 beauty were not mine, but he was devoted to his 

 children, and the boy, his father's counterpart, was 

 much with him as he worked. The hay was cut 

 and cured as carefully as if the welfare of the 

 nation depended on it. The vegetables were rowed 

 up like soldiers on parade, and the grass edges were 

 faujtless. It was Peter who suggested tilling an 

 unused field and growing potatoes and winter vege- 



