12 AN ISLAND GARDEN 



ficiently tough to have lost their delicacy for his 

 palate and are no longer adapted to his ideal of 

 a salad. All the Sweet Peas, many hundreds of 

 the delicate plants, are every one grown in this 

 way. When they are a foot high with roots a 

 foot long they are all transplanted separately. 

 Even then the little robber attacks them, and, 

 though he cannot uproot, he will "yank" and 

 twist the stems till he has murdered them in the 

 vain hope of pulling up the remnant of a pea 

 which he judges to be somewhere beneath the 

 surface. Then must sticks and supports be 

 draped with yards of old fishing nets to protect 

 the unfortunates, and over the Mignonette, and 

 even the Poppy beds and others, I must lay a 

 cover of closely woven wire to keep out the 

 marauder. But I love him still, though sadly he 

 torments me. I have adored his fresh music ever 

 since I was a child, and I only laugh as he sits 

 on the fence watching me with his bright black 

 eyes; there is something quaintly comical and 

 delightful about him, and he sings like a friendly 

 angel. From him I can protect myself, but I 

 cannot save my garden so easily from the hideous 

 slug, for which I have no sentiment save only a 

 fury of extermination. 



If possible, it is much the best way to begin in 

 the autumn to work for the garden of the next 

 spring, and the first necessity is the preparation 

 of the soil. If the gardener is as fortunate as I 

 am at the Isles of Shoals, there will be no trouble 

 in doing this, for there the barn manure is heaped 

 in certain waste places, out of the way, and left 



