20S THE GARDEN OF A 



ume devoted to seeds and a few well-tested bulbs 

 and roots. My grandfather bought his seeds from 

 this firm, and from this I shall make my final list 

 and send my order; and yet I turned almost fever- 

 ishly to the fourth, the catalogue of adjectives and 

 gay lithographs, upon whose cover is pictured a 

 young and lovely lady (it would seem lacking in 

 gentility to call her a woman). With her left hand she 

 holds up her lace robe, showing high-heeled slippers, 

 with the other she pushes an improved mowing 

 machine, with which she has just completed cut- 

 ting the grass on a two-acre lawn, though it is 

 apparently early morning. In the far background 

 is a bed of roses, each flower the size of the lady's 

 head ; and from the vegetable garden, which is in 

 plain sight, the husband, clad in a dress coat and 

 a four-in-hand tie, is taking in some strawberries of 

 large size for breakfast, apparently twelve to the 

 barrow in which he is wheeling them. 



In spite of knowing that this is a Yellow Journal 

 of Horticulture, I fold back the cover and con- 

 tinue the walk through a midsummer night's dream 

 of improbabilities, violets the size of a silver 

 dollar, pansies as big as saucers frilled like a 

 skirt dancer's robe, dwarf nasturtiums all flowers 

 and no leaves, self-supporting sweet peas, and worse 



