276 Old Time Gardens 
here a fortnight ago and the field was comparatively barren. 
Now you come, and these glorious redeemers appear to have 
flashed out here all at once. Who plants the seeds of Lu- 
pines in the barren soil ? Who watereth the Lupines in 
the field ? ” 
The Precision of Leaf and Flower of Lupine. 
I looked from a car window, and lo ! the Long 
Island Railroad ran also through an Elysian Field 
of Lupines, nay, we sailed a swift course through a 
summer sea of blueness, and I seem to see it still, 
with its prim precision of outline and growth of 
both leaf and flower. The Lupine is beautiful in 
the garden border as it is in the landscape, whether 
the blossom be blue, yellow, or white. 
Thoreau was the slave of color, but he was the 
master of its description. He was as sensitive as 
Keats to the charm of blue, and left many records 
of his love, such as the paragraphs above quoted. 
