158 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



One English garden will always remain to the writer a 

 delightful memory. It lay in a quite impossible district, — 

 an arsenal borough of greater London. The straight-angled 

 streets were walled with workmen's cottages two stories high 

 and of a depressing sameness. A knock at the street door 

 meant an invitation to step across the threshold and go through 

 the tiny passage over a second threshold out into the garden. 

 This garden covered scarcely more square feet than the ground 

 plan of the scrap of a house, but by some magic an atmosphere 

 quiet and lovely pervaded the spot. The din of the street 

 hardly intruded beyond the high wall, which, softly padded 

 with English ivy, inclosed it like a green nest. Next came the 

 border beds, fairly ablaze with tall spikes of color. A little 

 path led this way and that, and coaxed you into a half-hidden 

 arbor. Across, in an opposite corner, there peeped enticingly 

 a sunny bit of kitchen garden, spicy with fresh relishes, for 

 the table. Involuntarily one drew a long breath of satisfaction. 

 For a moment this seemed the one unhurried spot in all the 

 bustling world. You could fancy how the family might eagerly 

 look forward to a break in the afternoon's work, signaling the 

 appearance of the much-loved teapot and what might easily 

 prove the most precious half-hour of the day. 



Two things are worth looking forward to in American life : 

 the leisure to plan for outdoor comfort and beauty and the 

 leisure to enjoy these when once they are secured. Children 

 will help their elders to accomplish this. When youngsters 

 and oldsters combine, and with one accord set themselves to 

 learning how to create a beautiful outdoor home, whole 

 families are easily drawn into a life of fuller enjoyment and 

 attachment. 



Thus one side show suggests another, and one desire kindles 

 another, until by and by the whole neighborhood is astir with 

 enterprises and becomes a brighter, happier place to live in. 



