28 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
than their elders, so that they will make at first ridiculously 
elaborate planting lists. But common sense, combined with 
the restrictions of pocket money, very soon reduces the items 
to a list of reasonable length. In short, there is so much to 
do that the children will be busy every day painting in vivid 
colors a garden in Spain which is destined, in part at least, 
to come true. 
To go from fancy to fact will be a great relief ; and so all 
are radiant when in the late winter indoor planting can really 
begin and go steadily ahead. The seeds will be started in the 
house ; the young plants will be transplanted, first to a frame, 
then later to open beds. Much interest will center around the 
plan of growing the same sort of plants under widely varying 
conditions. These will be valuable experiences and will reveal 
interesting truths. 
As the weeks fly by, happy surprises await everybody. New 
possibilities occur to the children thick and fast. Many boys 
and girls will have drawn their families and all their relations 
— their whole social circle, in fact — into this whirlpool of 
interest. The father of one girl turns out to be an importer 
of bulbs ; the uncle of another lends his camera. From the 
north end of the town arrives, some fine day, a package of 
seeds, which all share with glee ; from the south side comes 
a carpenter’s offering of boards for a cold frame. Current num- 
bers of outdoor magazines will be brought, and certain mem- 
bers, on request, will read aloud to the others bits of garden 
lore which no farmer can afford to miss. Each young stu- 
dent catches the spirit of contributing something, no matter 
how little, for all to enjoy. 
The ways of working out plans are bound to differ. Some 
people prefer to devise and perfect by themselves a scheme 
which will burst upon the others in all its final magnificence ; 
others discover that a bit of work gains in scope and effect 
