HOUSE AND GARDEN 
I IO 
February, 
1914 
ment shall have been given in writing two weeks previous, and 
been appended to the notice of that meeting. 
By-Laws 
Duties of Officers: The duties of each officer shall be those usual 
to that office. The Executive Committee shall appoint standing 
committees, and shall fill all vacancies which may occur in the 
offices of the Club or its own committee, these appointees to serve 
until the next election. 
Membership: Candidates for membership shall sign the appli¬ 
cation blank furnished by the Club, and this shall be endorsed by 
two members and presented to 
the Membership Committee. 
Dues: The dues shall be $2 
per year, payable at the annual 
meeting in February. Members 
whose dues for the previous year 
remain unpaid at the annual 
meeting may be dropped from 
the roll at the discretion of the 
Executive Committee. Any 
member, upon the payment of 
$25, is entitled to become a life 
member of the Club without 
further dues. 
Meetings: The regular meet¬ 
ings of the Club shall be held on 
the second Mondays of each 
month throughout the year. 
There shall be eight afternoon 
meetings at 2.30 o’clock, and 
four evening meetings at 8.15 
o’clock. Special meetings shall 
be held according to written 
notice to members from the 
Executive Committee or the 
President. 
Elections: Election of officers 
shall be by ballot. No person 
shall be eligible to the office of 
President a second time without 
a year having elapsed since re¬ 
linquishing this office. 
Committees: A Program 
Committee of five members, 
which shall present a general 
program for the meetings of the 
ensuing year at the annual meeting, shall arrange where Club 
meetings are to be held, and shall decide the subjects to be dis¬ 
cussed. 
A Membership Committee consisting of two members of the 
Executive Board, named by the Board. 
An Auditing Committee of three shall examine the accounts of 
the treasurer and report at the annual meeting. 
A Nominating Committee consisting of three members shall be 
appointed by the Executive Committee at the December meeting, 
and shall present to the Club at its annual meeting a list of candi¬ 
dates for the offices of the Club, two names for each office. 
Quorum: Four members of the Executive Committee, beside 
the President or presiding officer, shall constitute a quorum. 
We came to Miss Lucy Ffarwood’s talk, however, at just nine¬ 
teen minutes past three, in spite of their old rigmarole—which 
was only four minutes behind the schedule, 1 heard Mrs. Addicks 
tell Mrs. Salton-Applebv; and I did enjoy that. In the first place. 
Miss Lucy is a dear, and I love her ; and in the second place it was 
like reading Maeterlinck to listen to her tell "What the Dirt Has 
Taught Me.” It’s a horrid-sounding title for such a talk as she 
gave; but it seems different after hearing it, somehow. 
I never would have believed she could do it, and I don’t see how 
she ever did; but who should, if not Miss Lucy, I should like to 
know? We all know she has just lived in that wonderful garden 
of hers since the day Tom Marsden was killed — and that was 
when I was a little girl. She had been showing my mother her 
wedding things the very day before, and I was there, too; and I 
have always remembered mother looking out of the window and 
saying: “The garden is going to be lovely, Lucy, but it will be 
lots of care.” And Miss Lucy came over and rumpled my hair 
over my ears from behind, as I 
stood there looking out, too, and. 
laughed the sweetest laugh, and 
said: “That’s really Tom’s gar¬ 
den, you know. It was his idea,, 
and to have it right there, where 
we shall live with it night and 
day. We are going to have a 
little stair built down to it from 
this balcony, so we can slip in 
and out when the moonlight 
tempts us and the elves are play¬ 
ing, with all the rest of the 
world asleep. We call it Eden.”’ 
And Tom Marsden was dead 
next day at noon ! So Miss Lucy 
went on living alone in her old 
home, just as she had lived most 
of her life, poor darling; only 
after that most of her time was. 
spent in “Eden” instead of in the 
great, still house. Winter and 
summer she is out there; and in 
rain and sun alike. No one ever 
knew of its name, though, save 
mother and me — and I don’t be¬ 
lieve it has ever been spoken' 
since Miss Lucy told it to us that 
day. 
So she has something to tell,, 
you see, whenever she talks- 
about a garden, or anything to- 
do with a garden; and she told 
it wonderfully, and was just as. 
unconscious of all of us watching" 
and listening as though we had 
not been there at all. How the soil came to be; what it is made- 
up of; how clean “dirt” really is; how it holds air; how water- 
rests in it and goes down and comes up; how roots travel through 
it and “mine” the particular food which their plant sends then®: 
after; how it is robbed and ill-treated; how plastic it is in our 
hands, and responsive; and finally, how old it is-; what it has seen 
happen here—-and how all life springs from it and is constantly a. 
“becoming,” world without end, instead of a once-established-and- 
that-settles-it affair. 
I came home and went straight over to the garden and looked at 
it, where the dark ridges of it lay like ranges of baby mountains 
turned up at the fall spading; and it seemed different to me than 
it had ever seemed before. Just dirt, to be sure — grains upon 
grains' of dust, fast locked together now until it is as flinty a mass 
as ever the rocks, which it once helped to form, were, back in the 
dim ages, under the spell which winter lays so easily and effect¬ 
ually upon all waters, hidden or in the open though they be. Yet 
every dust grain has its precious, tiny portion to give — and gives 
(Continued on page 136) 
Miss Lucy’s garden was her daily care in all sorts of weather, and from the 
results she obtained she was a good teacher of practical gardening 
