Robin Hood's Barn 



carelessly in the opposite direction. I stir the 

 earth or stiffen a stake as if that were my sole 

 preoccupation. But, in reality, I am casting a 

 glance over one shoulder at the depredations that 

 I have invited. 



She has begun with my sweet-william, a just 

 scourge to my vainglory. WiU she spare that 

 one of cherry-red of which I wish the seedlings? 

 No, it is laid low. She has reached the variety 

 called Newport Pink. At this moment I call 

 her attention swiftly to the skill with which I 

 have attained a continuous stretch of bloom; but 

 she has already opened up a breach. I know with- 

 out turning what she will lay her hands on next. 

 Just around the comer there are Iceland poppies, 

 orange and scarlet. She cannot miss the nodding 

 of their delicately crinkled cups. In a moment 

 they are tufts of leaves. And it will be a week 

 before their soft, fuzzy buds, so tightly curled 

 like little fronds, will straighten out upon the 

 crooked stems. 



With an eager eye for acquisitions she has come 

 upon the roses — not the perpetuals of which one 

 gives so gladly — ^but the York and Lancaster of 

 [148] 



