18 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



leaves ; behind, the purple brown of the bare hedge ; 

 beyond, a glimpse of blue flowers, or pale yellow, or 

 still more dazzling white. A sight wonderful when 

 one stands among them, but also to be appreciated 

 afterwards from a distance — preferably from the 

 windows of the gardener's little house. If the wind 

 is very cold and den Heer is going to be very long 

 in conference with the gardener, it is possible that, 

 after a certain time, one can admire them more 

 from within over such coffee as the gardener's wife 

 makes. A cup of such coffee, a footstool filled with 

 hot charcoal, and a chair in the most shining 

 kitchen possible to conceive of, are not to be 

 despised, while den Heer, outside, talks about the 

 cutting down of the hyacinth flowers. 



To us who grow hyacinths in pots or in beds, 

 where the failure of one is like a missing front 

 tooth, the cutting down of the flowers seems 

 almost a ruthless thing. We admit that it must 

 be necessary, or it would not be done, but we feel 

 that the men who do it ought to have some com- 

 punction about it. Though why they should be 

 expected to feel it more than the mowers who cut 

 the equally beautiful flowers in the English hay- 

 fields does not appear. The bulbs in Holland are 

 grown for their roots as much as are carrots and 



