THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 31 



themselves, for they go together in garden 

 study. House and sun, slope and tree, shrub 

 and flower all figured in plans, and it was 

 months before the real garden was complete on 

 paper. Often a new flower was brought to our 

 notice by friends, and it must go into our plans, 

 but its height and color would modify and 

 change, and then would follow the work of re- 

 adjusting. But it was a delightful winter of 

 mental exploration and spoil-finding. The lay- 

 ing out of our garden was a liberal art indeed, 

 liberal in money and time and books and study, 

 and now the after-thoughts of it all are liberal 

 in remembered joys. Real joys cost and pay! 

 The landscape gardener's task is to produce 

 beautiful pictures full of color and harmony. 

 There is no spot on earth he could not improve 

 and beautify. He is only limited by questions 

 of time and money. He can count on perfec- 

 tion in details which painter and sculptor never 

 get, and his details have always the advantage 

 of being alive and full of expression. Light 

 and atmosphere are the difficult things to get on 

 the canvas, but the gardener produces both with 

 endless variations. Nature furnishes him free- 

 ly with best materials, light, atmosphere, color, 

 imposing forms, but the designs are vitally es- 

 sential, and must be of his own conceiving. His 



