I/O THE GARDEN OF A 



" Then," said Evan, slyly, " I think I shall not be 

 interfering with your garden operations if I bring 

 home some plans to-morrow night and work over 

 them here where I can be free from interruptions. 

 Incidentally, I might spare a few hours of daylight 

 to unpack my bachelor belongings, and get our 

 books into winter quarters." 



He knew exactly what I should say, or rather do, 

 and he slipped around a tree that we were passing, 

 thereby causing me to embrace it fervently in the 

 dark, bumping my tip-tilted nose. 



Ah, the joy of unexpected holidays ! their ecstasy 

 must be forever missing to the habitually leisure 

 class. Even the dogs sniff the news in the air on 

 the rare autumn field-days that father takes, and by 

 the time he brings out his gun and examines stock 

 and muzzle, they are running circling about in a 

 frenzy of excitement. 



Precisely this feeling possessed me when Evan 

 said that he could do his planning here. Yet such 

 a creature of contrariety am I, that I can imagine 

 nothing more deadly to motive and affection than 

 to have one's husband belong to the American 

 branch of that pernicious institution known as " The 

 Men who Stay at Home." The subtle art of being 

 agreeable though unemployed in the technical sense 



