82 THE GARDEN OF A 



and a braised ham for next week's harvest-home 

 supper, and they must be faultless, for the supper is 

 for the hospital. 



A school friend of my mother's, a very charming 

 woman, but rather a borrower of trouble, raised a 

 more serious point by saying that, glad as she was 

 to see me back, she hoped that I had not used undue 

 influence to take Evan from his native land, as she 

 thought such experiments dangerous and against 

 the nature of things. I'm afraid that my answer 

 was rather heated. It is not against nature for the 

 female to have the say as far as possible in choosing 

 the location of the home. 



I am American to my finger-tips, though I fully 

 recognize the fascination and protective atmosphere 

 of old world tradition, but as the old proverb says, 

 "Every bird finds its own nest charming." Now, 

 as a matter of course, all birds'-nests are not equally 

 well located or built. The oriole weaves a sky cradle 

 moated by the free air, the cuckoo throws together 

 a few sticks in a bush each to her taste. The only 

 bird despised and scorned of all is the outcast, the 

 cowbird, to whom, having none of her own, all nests 

 are equal and a matter of indifference. The only 

 being so despised is the songster without a nest to 

 uphold. 



