OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



placed in her very own garden, would always recall 

 the far-off lover? Or did a son mindful of his moth- 

 er's taste, take pleasure in thus ministering to her small 

 joys? I know that each year I welcome its gay pres- 

 ence, its unquenchable spirit, its childlike brightness. 

 Like most ambitious youth, however, it dislikes to con- 

 form to rule and at least once a fortnight the san- 

 vitalia and the ageratum with any other leaves which 

 stray over the path have to be cut back to the raised 

 brick border. It used actually to hurt me snipping 

 that splendid growth, but the after-effect is so fine that 

 my heart has become hardened. A formal garden 

 must preserve a certain amount of formality especially 

 as to its walks, and without this cruel curtailment there 

 would soon be no walks. 



In tiny crevices of the stone wall a yellow columbine 

 seeded itself one year, and now season after season until 

 frost, four separate plants bloom vigorously. Of 

 course they have attention, a seed is never permitted 

 to mature, but they repay our care tenfold. No gar- 

 den is complete without heliotrope. Ours nestles into 



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