March, 1916 
39 
another much discussed problem! 
As luck would have it, the 
honeysuckle, the woodbine and the 
kudzu vines were already lush 
upon the windmill, and nestling 
against this background the tiny 
bird pool, which had once done 
duty as a church font, enticed 
many a songster hither for a daily 
morning plunge—even tempted 
some among them to loiter here at 
odd times of the day to preen 
themselves. By happy chance, 
too, there grew behind a bench 
that lured away from work, a 
head-high row of heretofore- 
planted grapevines, barberries and 
prim milady hollyhocks. Shall 
we add that they set an admirable 
tone, sufficiently staid but in no 
wise stiff or sombre, for the gay 
flowers of the foreground ! 
And what a pageant did these 
others make, fit for dazzling royal¬ 
ty itself. A procession indeed 
that grew only the more brilliant 
as the days went by. Of a truth 
the flowers of lesser reserve, the 
golden zinnia, the white petunias, 
the Iceland poppies, the nastur¬ 
tiums and the marigolds, (which 
last dwelt by themselves in the 
northwest of the garden-plot), 
took special delight when they 
could glow in the sunset light and grew ever tne more gorgeous 
as the summer advanced. By that time of year when cosmos, 
“chiny asters" and chrysanthemums make their triumphal entry 
the pageant was in fullest swing. Possibly the late comers were 
a bit riotous. Certainly the edgings of brick could not begin 
to restrain their revels. Nor could these flowers be con¬ 
strained to keep their purple and gold in the places planned 
for them. On the contrary, they would insist on flinging their 
royal largess over beds and pathways alike, till the tiny garden 
glittered like a miniature Venice in high carnival time. 
They seemed to revel in it all, to glory in the mere joy of 
growing and blooming and nodding in the sunshine. 
A little garden, confessedly it 
was, forced by grim circumstance 
to measure little more than 50' 
in diameter, yet contrary to the 
fears which were entertained, it 
proved to be neither childish nor 
lacking in dignity. Surely a mini¬ 
ature is as like to be a work of art 
as a full length oil portrait, and 
this tiny garth, moreover, has 
proven itself of a size precisely 
right for tilling and tending; be¬ 
sides it is of a dimension, as some¬ 
one said of England, to be beloved. 
The Realization of the Dream 
Starting out to be a garden to 
sit and muse in, it has turned out 
also to be a garden to pluck from. 
That again has been one of its 
pleasant unexpectednesses. Odd¬ 
ly enough, too, the more numerous 
the basketfuls of verbenas, pinks, 
mignonette and roses for some 
neighbor, so much the more pro¬ 
fusely did the plants give bloom 
for the Philosopher’s contempla¬ 
tion. And if occasionally that 
Philosopher’s critical eye espied 
some particularly worldly beauty 
flaunting itself to the detriment of 
some slight, ethereal blossom, or 
perhaps a glossy leaf quite hiding 
from view some “modest wee- 
tippet flower, even so she could scarce find it in her heart 
to cavil. Nor could she muster the hardihood to cut back 
from the pathways the overflowing bounty of blue and gold 
and purple. 
For after all, is not a garden which is enclosed in a green 
circle exempt from the ordinary by-laws and humdrum regula¬ 
tions of other gardens that are square or oblong or triangular ? 
Is it not something like the magic ring on the grass the children 
are always a-hunting? When found, as you know, one does 
not even have to put on a wishing-cap, or eat fernseed. All 
one needs do is to step within and yield oneself to the spell; 
one’s eyes will be open to faery folk and their ventures bold. 
The formal beds, in shape not unlike pieces of pie, are edged with bricks and a mosaic of beach pebbles. Humble bamboo fish-poles serve new 
purposes as flower arches and a wattled fence over which clamber coral-tinted and cream honeysuckles and quick-growing morning glories 
