IQ'« MaL ^ Mo^^ <^«rJ. 



len 



through your sky-claim ; and best of all you possess 

 all the dreams which lie between you and infinity. 



And you own down, down, down to the centre of 

 the earth's axis, and this is why owning land gives 

 one such a sense of anchorage and solidity. 



When we came to our senses (for my humbler half 

 and I are the people of whom I spoke so mysteri- 

 ously in my opening sentence) we sought the coun- 

 try and became the proud possessors of a slice of 

 land and a real home. On our original plot — be- 

 fore we bought the adjoining two acres of wilder- 

 ness — there stood two apple trees, three peaches, 

 two cherries, white and purple lilacs, a deutzia, and 

 a flowering almond, — nothing else. Now, after a 

 few years, to tell all our tree and flower possessions 

 would necessitate nine volumes of very fine print, 

 and then I'd have to leave out all the intangible 

 things we have come to own, things which have no 

 name but which make one terribly happy in the 

 private possession thereof. 



The first autumn we spent so much time in con- 

 gratulating each other on our emancipation from the 

 city, marveling at the sunsets, rediscovering the 

 night sky, that we were really too stunned by 

 the seventy and seven wonders of the world revealed 



10 



