90 PLANTING BEFORE THE WALL 
us by saying : “I know poison-ivy has three leaflets 
because ivy has three letters in its name. It can 
never poison me or Rosamond. We stay too far 
away from it.” 
Rosamond is Queenle’s doll. In some ways 
Queenie is wiser than one would expect, while in 
others she is more babyish than she should be for a 
girl nearly nine years old. What she had said this 
time about the three leaflets of poison-ivy had quite 
fixed the fact in my mind. As yet, I have never 
gone through a season in the country without being 
severely poisoned. 
As our vines grow old and sturdy, Joseph plans 
to put up poles by the side of the wall, on which 
they may twine skyward. These, I think, he 
especially wishes for the clematis paniculata, with 
its masses of sweet-smelling, white flowers. The 
idea seems attractive to me also, as the stupid 
straight line of the wall will then be broken. But 
this is one of the unfinished things in our imagined 
garden when all the seeds and plants that we have 
set out are grown. 
Mr. Percy knows quite as much about vines as 
he does about ferns. He was delighted to see 
that the creepers he had suggested transplanting so 
soon showed signs of having taken good root. He 
said the form of the rose garden was an inspiration. 
It suited the triangle better, he thought, than if it 
had been circular, square or even long and narrow. 
Perhaps it is because he has no sisters that he did 
