HEAVEN'S HARMONY 15 



life are visions created by our longing selves in anticipa- 

 tion of something beautiful which we would have for our 

 own. 



Winged by hopes, we step lightly over the quagmires 

 of everyday to live in inspiring atmospheres and gather 

 posies in fairy gardens. To be able to do this counts one 

 among those blessed with a safe haven at hand when 

 February rains flood the air, the melting snowdrifts have 

 lost their purity, and the garden lies drowned, with the 

 trees standing dully in a forbidding atmosphere. 



The immortal artist knows that we need the grays to 

 throw the skies into brighter contrast ; and if we bid dull 

 care be gone and put spur to the imagination, lo! the 

 garden blooms with the firstlings of Easter, and no Hindu 

 magician has been at hand to wave his wand to make 

 it so. 



It has been whispered that many florists' catalogues 

 and railway time-tables go to those who never plant and 

 to those who never travel. The little woman in her one 

 room, when work is done, yields to the luxury of plan- 

 ning a garden which perchance some turn in the wheel 

 of fortune may give her in the unread future. No down- 

 town playhouse could transport her as does the thin- 

 leafed picture book in the twinkling of an eye. And 

 when she has settled her perennials and sweet herbs she 

 puts the pamphlet tenderly away for another dream hour. 



One who has tested the magic of it does not need our 



