SIDE SHOWS 
household, how they loved this miniature bower where they 
could play at ' keeping house ’ to their hearts’ content.” ^ 
Crossing the water, we get, if possible, more glowing pic- 
tures still. Everybody who has had the luck to peep at English 
gardens, — not the stately ones adjoining great manor houses, 
but those snug gardens belonging to cottage life, — must 
have a longing to 
adapt some of these 
ideas to the Ameri- 
can yard. The idea 
would be more far- 
reaching than merely 
the production of a 
tangled mass of green- 
ery, which at its best 
harbors a swarm of 
insects, although such 
a thicket in the land- 
scape is doubtless a 
step in advance of 
mere barren wastes. 
But our English cous- 
ins have developed 
by long training a 
rare perception for 
exactly the elements that produce cosiness and comfort. 
Many secrets in the art of home making they can teach a 
willing learner. Not the least of these is the effective use of 
the back yard. In their skillful hands the back yard becomes 
the outdoor living room, a real withdrawing room. It consti- 
tutes the very pivot of restful life, giving charm to reading, 
sewing, and the lighter meals of the day. 
1 Loring Underwood, The Garden and its Accessories. 
HER OWN CRIMSON RAMBLER 
