i/2 THE GARDEN OF A 



an occasional snowflake drifted through the air, but 

 with the motivelessness of a floating feather. 



Bertie, who has also been a sailor and is wise in 

 weather signs, predicted a storm, and suggested, as 

 it was Saturday and there was little to do, that he 

 should drive over to the sawmill for a supply of 

 lumber from which during the next three months he 

 is to construct and fashion new hotbed frames for 

 the spring seeds, garden seats, plant-boxes to screen 

 the piazza., and the framework for supporting the 

 chicken wire upon which sweet peas, nasturtiums, 

 and other summer vines are to be trained. By 

 planning winter work for Bertie we can keep him 

 the year through, and so be spared the uncertainty 

 of looking up a new man every spring, a trial from 

 which many gardens and dispositions suffer. 



By noon, when he returned with the first load, 

 snow was falling in soft, irregular flakes that by three 

 o'clock had grown finer and more persistent, while 

 the wind was rising fast and the pines were swept to 

 and fro by the unseen force. 



Father had taken an all-day drive to Stony Hill for 

 a consultation and must return in the face of the 

 wind. The sudden change made me restless ; I could 

 neither sit still nor stay indoors : so buttoning myself 

 into an ulster with a hood, I called the dogs and 



