Robin Hood's Barn 



stand out from it in the place of ears? In any 

 case when he has finished, the garden has a pro- 

 fessional cut. But leave him for an instant. 

 In that instant all the children of the neighbor- 

 hood will have gathered close about him. Or he 

 wiU have wandered up the track to borrow a hoe, 

 or he will be sending his great voice down the 

 drive to hail every passerby. Even under my di- 

 rection, he works with half an eye. The other eye 

 is down the road where human interest travels. 

 "There is a man who can take the heart out of 

 your razor for you." He points with a flourish 

 at an indistinguishable figure. And a moment 

 before he had been telling me that my roses threw 

 a lovely bloom. Now when I work I set my mind 

 upon my task. I look firmly to the end of the 

 row that dazzles in the simlight and bend my 

 back towards it like a mole, my mind closed to 

 all distractions. Yet this man who can work 

 so nonchalantly has kept me enviously peering 

 through my pea vines for the first white bonnet. 

 Nor does the pride of these men stop with their 

 own prowess. It has other forms with which it 

 is as hard to cope. Healey's father was a gar- 



[298] 



