SIDE SHOWS 



157 



household, how they loved this miniature bower where they 

 could play at ' keeping house ' to their hearts' content." 1 



Crossing the water, we get, if possible, more glowing pic- 

 tures still. Everybody who has had the luck to peep at English 

 gardens, — not the stately ones adjoining great manor houses, 

 but those snug gardens belonging to cottage life, — must 

 have a longing to 

 adapt some of these 

 ideas to the Ameri- 

 can yard. The idea 

 would be more far- 

 reaching than merely 

 the production of a 

 tangled mass of green- 

 ery, which at its best 

 harbors a swarm of 

 insects, although such 

 a thicket in the land- 

 scape is doubtless a 

 step in advance of 

 mere ^barren wastes. 

 But our English cous- 

 ins have developed 

 by long training a 

 rare perception for 

 exactly the elements that produce cosiness and comfort. 

 Many secrets in the art of home making they can teach a 

 willing learner. Not the least of these is the effective use of 

 the back yard. In their skillful hands the back yard becomes 

 the outdoor living room, a real withdrawing room. It consti- 

 tutes the very pivot of restful life, giving charm to reading, 

 sewing, and the lighter meals of the day. 



1 Loring Underwood, The Garden and its Accessories. 



HER OWN CRIMSON RAMBLER 



