abutting against the rear and sides of my rose garden 

 — a tract devoted to tomatoes and sweet potatoes, 

 both very pretty members of the vegetable family 

 and not in the least objectionable to my roses; but, 

 womanlike, I just coveted those two spaces. So I 

 surreptitiously sent oif for thirty roses and had them 

 shipped to him with my card. When they arrived 

 there was no place left in my own rose garden to 

 offer him, and after much indifference on my part as 

 to their fate, and many attempts on his to find rent 

 room in other crowded flower tenements, he finally 

 sighed : " I don't see anything to do but remove 

 those sweet potatoes and place my rose garden on 

 your south side, then all the roses will be together." 



I demurred and raised a thousand objections to 

 spoiling so fine a potato patch, and in short so 

 dramatized' my real sentiments he became quite 

 abusive of sweet potatoes and even peevishly insistent 

 on having his own rose garden where he pleased. 



Having one victory to my credit, I planned a cam- 

 paign for my lilies the following season. 



It had always been his wily habit to present me 

 his tomato patch just when the weeds began to thrive, 

 generously permitting me the picking of his " spoils 

 of labor," as he picturesquely termed it. This sea- 



56 



