8 
THE DECISION 
“You’ll tame the wild ones?” Timothy asked, 
for he had caught the idea. 
Indeed, I began to think that Joseph’s simple 
garden in which wild plants would grow freely 
and birds build nests might be made as attractive 
as one where only rare and costly flowers bloomed. 
We both listened eagerly as the old man related 
how, when his boy was ill, he had taken hepaticas 
from the woods and forced them to open before 
their natural season. He abetted Joseph’s scheme 
of getting flowers and ferns from our own woods 
and transplanting them in the garden. The num- 
ber of ideas that soon began to tumble over each 
other in our minds was astonishing. 
It was perhaps unfortunate that Timothy spoke 
so strongly about weeds. This word shocked 
us both, since it made us foresee strife and innumer- 
able difficulties. He had said that weeds in a garden 
were not only probable but necessary to its beauty, 
and that some of the rankest of them there were 
handsomer than many hot-house flowers. “A gar- 
den without weeds,” he declared, “would be like a 
loaf of bread without salt.” 
“They will come anyway,” Joseph replied, 
“there is no’ use in planning for them. What we 
must think about,” he added, and, from the way 
Little Joseph spoke, the old man must have known 
that the decision was made, “is how to plant the 
triangle with real flowers, both tamed and wild.” 
