68 THE JOY OF GARDENS 



table entertain songsters unawares, a flock of feeding 

 sheep make it a picture, a fountain suggest the naiad in 

 its rippling waters; and the sundial and heliotrope count 

 the hours of sunshine. 



The great game of life is an endless round of tricks 

 and diversions, of which garden-making is but a side 

 play. If we are bold enough to shake off the shadows of 

 domineering self and look out of our windows, setting 

 our eye-traps, the play takes on a thrilling interest. 

 How often do beauty seekers go out of the path to enjoy 

 an old oak draped in vines, apparently an unconscious 

 decoration of a modest yard? Who does not know of a 

 trellis purple with hanging wistaria in June, or a rose- 

 wreathed doorway, or an outlook from some window 

 through trees that have been trimmed to make an ex- 

 tended view over the hills and far away*? 



Thoughtless friend, not one of these has come by 

 chance. All are designed eye-traps; and you do your 

 part by making more within doors by hanging a picture, 

 and outdoors by planting a vine, making a woodland 

 shrine, a bank for the wild thyme, or a nook fit for fairies 

 and elves. 



Nature is a veritable enchantress, and willingly lends 

 her art to a few little tricks to inveigle the lagging 

 dreams. Vines in particular are her favorite means of 

 creating surprises. It would be fair to call them the 

 "wild highlanders" of flower folk, wayward, usurping, 



