THE DROUGHT 
169 
all is done, they send out their flowers abundantly, 
as well in a new garden as in one centuries old. 
Our stocks, Joseph says, are quite as fine as Miss 
Wiseman’s, and much better grown than the few 
at Nestly Heights. For this reason I like annuals. 
Those that we have planted this year have bloomed 
as well as they ever will, because it is the only year 
that they will bloom at all. The first frost will kill 
them. 
Our perennials have also done well, we are told ; 
but they have always made us remember that this 
is their first season, and that we must not expect to 
find out how gloriously they really can bloom until 
next year, or even the year after. 
Every season we will plant ten-weeks stocks. 
This much is decided. I like the soft, pretty col- 
ours of their flowers, and the way they hold their 
stalks erect. At twilight, when we are working 
about them, they send out a fragrance more notice- 
able than under the burning sun. It seems as if 
they wished to let us know their gratitude for giv- 
ing them drink in this dry weather. 
It must have been in a moment of inspiration 
that Joseph planted these stocks where he did, be- 
cause, if they had been put along the border, as he 
first planned, they would have grown up and hid- 
den the plants behind them. Fortunately, he set 
them well back in the bed, three rows of them, 
which sometimes break the straight line and form 
clumps. It was no doubt accidental that they came 
