CHAPTER XIV, 
MAY TIME 
F or the last few days Joseph and I have done 
little in the garden. We have been medi- 
tating and watching things grow. Besides^ we have 
seen a great deal of our neighbours and their gar- 
dens. 
May in the country is surely as lovely as June. 
The roses have not yet bloomed; but a wealth of 
other flowers have let out their petals. At Miss 
Wiseman’s, the hardy border is a lively sight with 
irises, columbines, azaleas, rhododendrons, and the 
prettiest little phlox Drummondi edging it all 
about. It is the early crop of this phlox that shows 
in May: the main one will not come on until July. 
As we see it at Miss Wiseman’s, lying a mass of 
bloom on the ground, its colour is a clear and bril- 
liant magenta. It has bewitched Joseph, who tells 
me he intends to have a quantity of it next year 
about the borders at the Six Spruces. It not only 
comes up readily from seed, but resows itself abun- 
dantly. Indeed, it is not at all difficult to grow. 
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