OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



water views." And so our choice was made, one by 

 one five trees were marked for destruction, two of 

 them walnuts over a hundred feet high! And the day 

 arrived. While the Constant Improver bravely man- 

 aged the undertaking, I fled to the farther end 

 of the place and worked desperately to avoid hearing 

 those sounds of Fate, those crashing blows. So skill- 

 fully did the men work taking the huge trees down in 

 sections that, although in full leaf, none of the sur- 

 rounding shrubs were hurt and when the debris had 

 been carried away, the result was really surprising. A 

 water picture was revealed, framed in quivering 

 greenery, where white sails danced, where cloud banks 

 reflected the glory of the setting sun, where round, ma- 

 jestic, crimson, rose the hunter's moon. 



Encouraged by this procedure, we developed in 

 hardihood and demanded more openings. A tall 

 young poplar draped in a toga of wild grape such as 

 only Nature can arrange had expanded with the years 

 until it completely blocked our view of the water at 



the west. 



150 



