THREE] GROWING THE HOUSE 
tell you to what I have settled down. I began with 
a small conservatory, capable of holding perhaps 
fifty pots. This was placed, as it ought to have 
been, facing the east — with the south end closed 
against the sun. The morning light is best for 
plants, as it is for folks. Growth goes on mostly 
under the impulse of the dawn. Babies and plants 
should be seen by the rising sun — old folks also, 
if they would have sweet dispositions and long lives. 
But after a time I found it difficult to keep the 
floor from having wetted spots, and there were rot- 
ting boards. ‘The atmosphere was not the best, and 
not good altogether to let loose into the house. 
There is nothing worse than sick plants to poison 
the atmosphere; and it was not always easy to keep 
every plant in robust health. Then I tried a simple 
table and asunny window — using the conservatory 
for another purpose. I turned a couple of marble 
tops bottom upward, and they made capital plant 
stands. On one of these, in a large, sunny window, 
I now grow magnificent pelargoniums, five feet high, 
and back of these there are a few fuchsias. On an- 
other stand, in a north window, grow Rex Begonias. 
Other plants are kept in the balcony that is enclosed 
for winter, and for summer is open for a hammock. 
[49] 
