THAT LITTLE GREENHOUSE OF MINE 
By “MRS. JIM” 
Which T urned the First Northern Win- 
ter of a Reluctant Discontent into Glor- 
ious Summer for a Southern Bride 
jWggp HEN the wedding was all over, and I had succeeded in 
getting the last of the rice and rose-petals out of my 
^ a ' r ’ anc * J' m ^ ac ^ § ot a " t ^ ie s '§ ns our * u §§ a S e ’ — ■ 
except the one on the end of the suitcase which showed 
plainest — we went North. And as I had never been farther than 
Washington before, Massachusetts in early fall was something 
of a change for me.. Everything was so different! We took 
an apartment in the city— 1 had always lived in the country — • 
and the houses, the streets, the sky, the people even, all seemed 
gray and cold. (The people weren’t , really; when 1 got to knew 
them, 1 found as warm friends as 1 had ever known.) But 
even so, everything was different — terribly different. 
grapes were grown, until that moment. And 
how warm and comfortable it was after the 
autumn chill of the outdoors ! 1 stretched and 
blinked and felt like I was back home. And 
Jim always swears that when he got back, I 
was purring' 
Well the result of our having that green- 
house was that we moved out the very next 
week, instead of waiting till spring. We had 
to put in a new heating system which made 
my conscience prick a little. But it also gave me an idea. 
For we had taken over the “ Captain ” — otherwise the gardener — 
along with the place and so without saying anything to Jim 
about it, 1 just started in to grow all our Christmas presents! 
We made cuttings from lots of the plants outside and started 
others from seed and got some bulbs agoing; and by the middle 
of December, when I took Jim out to that little house one 
Sunday morning — after we had figured all through breakfast 
how much it was going to cost to remember all our friends — - 
he was just clean taken off his feet! 
The winter was long, though— frightfully long. And struggle 
against it as I would, I did get homesick and blue sometimes, 
especially as my birthday drew near, in late February; and the 
ground was so cold and white and the earth so bare! 
Oh— the sight and 
the smell of that 
beautiful Cherokee 
Rose at the end of 
the greenhouse, a- 
bloom in February! 
WE BUY AN OLD PLACE — AND 1 STEP ON THE MAGIC CARPET 
I thought at last maybe the trouble was living in the city. 
And when 1 suggested that to Jim, he seemed rather pleased, 
and said he would like to get back to the open sky himself. 
And he gave me the address of a “real estate friend’’ of his, 
mentioned a price we’d have to stay within, and told me to 
look around for a place — to keep me busy awhile, I suppose. 
So, just naturally, next morning I went out and bought one! 
When 1 told him that night he looked a little queer — but 
Sunday we drove out to see it. And quite to his surprise (I 
found out afterward) it was just as attractive as 1 knew it 
would be. 
An old gardener who was acting as care-taker, showed us all 
through the house and about the grounds; but when Jim and 
he went off to see the spring I stayed behind because it was 
raw outdoors and 1 hated the wind when it blew like that. 
So it happened that 1 went poking about alone — and finally 
found my way to a little door leading out of a room where the 
heater was, under the garage, which I opened — and took just 
one step from Boston to New Orleans! 
I SPRING A LITTLE SURPRISE ON JIM AND HE RETURNS IT 
Did you ever get a smell of the inside of a greenhouse when 
Muscats and Black Hamburgs were plumb for the picking? 
Mm-mm-my! That’s the fragrance 1 poked my nose into, when 
1 opened that little door! 1 never knew how those wonderful 
CUCUMBERS ARE REALLY DECORATIVE VINES WHEN 
OVERHEAD 
We tickled Jim’s interest first through things to eat — just little tastes of 
delicious vegetables like these big nearly seedless English cucumbers 
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