4 
THE DECISION 
one a year older than Joseph and one a year 
younger; the eldest, a boy of twenty, whom we 
have not seen, is away at college. The only little 
girl in the neighbourhood is Queenie Perth. She 
lives with her aunt. Miss Wiseman, who takes a 
wonderful amount of care of her, and talks a great 
deal about her health. Whenever she plays with 
Joseph or the boys at Nestly Heights, however, I 
notice that she romps as hard as any of them. 
The strip of ground that Joseph and I thought 
possible for our garden lies in the shape of a long 
triangle, one end of which snuggles up closely to 
our south veranda. Bordering the longest side of 
this triangle there is a strip of light woodland, com- 
posed mostly of coppice, while both the point and 
the straight side fit into Mr. Hayden’s well-kept 
land. This straight side, moreover, is outlined by 
a high wall. 
It was not on account of any preconceived plan 
that our garden plot is so shaped. We perhaps 
should have preferred a circular or a rectangular 
garden; but the triangle happened to be the most 
available bit of ground for planting that our great- 
aunt had left us. Joseph, who has the gift of spy- 
ing out the advantageous in all things, says that at 
least we can put the same plants in a triangular plot 
that we can in any other. 
The great decision was about the kind of garden 
to plant; for we soon became sufficiently modern 
in the fashion of gardens to feel that it should be 
