74 A LITTLE GARDEN THE YEAR ROUND 



Pomona have regarded this acreage as a tem- 

 ple grove planted and tended to their worship. 



I shall tell you of but one of these gardens. 

 Two stone walls running from hedge to stream 

 •form the sides of the inclosure. As one en- 

 ters through an arch in the center of the hedge 

 — an arch that might have been copied from 

 some old Persian miniature — ^there is no mis- 

 taking this little spot for other than an Omar 

 Khayyam garden, which is confirmed by the 

 various inscriptions composed of rubai from 

 the Tent-maker's own poesy. 



A wide marble walk from the gardener's 

 entrance crosses another like it, but not so wide, 

 at the center, where seven low broad steps of 

 white marble all around form the support of 

 the sandstone pedestal, surmounted by a bronze 

 sundial. Its inscription reads: 



"The Bird of Time has hut little tmy 

 To fly — and lo! the bird is on the wing" 



The marble walk is bordered with beds of 

 gorgeous Tulips and Hyacinths, and by the 

 Roses a marble column bears on its shaft these 

 lines : 



