Keeping One's Place 



with barberries, then turned its energies to rear- 

 ing maples, willows, and small fir trees in a high 

 green wall. 



But cultivation was a different matter. At 

 first it couldn't get the hang of it. There was no 

 telling how things worked. I hadn't seemed to 

 mind its running wild. When it looked frowsy 

 and imshorn, I hadn't made remarks. Even its 

 gay fancy for a scarlet poppy springing up be- 

 fore the steps, an ox-eyed daisy glowing in the 

 path, I was apt to pardon and protect. But 

 the path itself in which it had felt pride — its one 

 attempt at social manners — I had avoided from 

 the first. And now I was attempting to put 

 that gleaming front aside and overlay it with a 

 garb of weeds. Women surely had odd ways ! 



It was only when I mapped out our first 

 course, a front garden binding our pretense at 

 lawn — that the place awoke to interest and took 

 hold. Here was a tongue that it might learn 

 to speak, if I would only give it time. At least 

 one winter it must have for thorough groimd- 

 ing in this language and a sober study of the 

 roots. And sure enough by spring, it roused it- 



[71] 



