Show summer guests the pikes live a quarter of a mile down the road from me said the girl who owned a summer cottage the they have one of those simple little place places of about twenty acres with its own bathing beach and melon patch and gold plated chicken yard and mani maul cured cows and tomatoes worth 1 a piece if a fallen twig tig six inches long Is allowed to remain on the lawn the head gardener gets into a lot ol 01 trouble one slug discovered on the rose bushes causes his discharge the tile pikes are especially proud ol 01 their kitchen garden where they raise things that cost them ten times what they would pay for the same things in the grocery store but the things the pikes raise are worth the orice you really wouldn rit t believe thel their strawberries it if you saw one suddenly with no preparation As for the green peas actually those peas should be framed and hung bung on the wall just to be looked at well the pikes had a guest over sunday a large beefy important gen tieman who bad had made bis his money lato late in life and who enjoys entering electric lighted cafes and tipping the waiter with a 5 bill they thought they would give him a genuine treat something he did not get every day a dish that would make him exclaim joyously so they bad had the first pick ing of june peas with the broiled chicken for dinner the guest did not observe the breathless hush bush with which the peas were ere offered him but he helped him self bountifully and devoured them in a workmanlike manner while his hosts watched him expectantly noth ing happened mr air pike coughed er he be gan the peas pretty good eh ell 7 from our own garden the beefy gentleman dimly felt that something was expected from lilan 1 oh I 1 es he said to be sure the peas they re rp good arent tren t they almost as good as the french canned peas they serve at hotels not ot having a garden I 1 do not get my feelings outraged in just the same manner as did the pikes but there are times there was the occasion of the peach tree for instance nobody who has not witnessed the betting setting out in a sunny place of four walking sticks with tunny funny green knobs on them and has not nursed and cherished them tor for three seasons and off spiders and ants and defied curly leaf and the yellow blight and coddled and fussed over them can understand undo stand what it means to arrive in ing 1 I the spring and find six or seven fuzzy unmistakable peaches on each of those trees it Is as exciting a moment as that when you ind a baby has cut ut a tooth I 1 would go out a dozen times a day just to assure my self that the peaches were all there and no insect was marring them and to teli tell them how bow nice it was of them actually to grow before my ver eyes my own trees I 1 that was the sum mer I 1 asked pearl over to visit me pearl perl Is a fascinating young worn wom in an but aou ou will u understand her eions when I 1 say that she would rath er walk down state street than through the woods and that she turns pale at the sight ol 01 a spider I 1 believe si 1 a regarded the country with bored surprise and came over because bhe she felt sorry tor for me in my exile the only time pearl stepped off the porch when she did not have to I 1 found her out by the peach frees trees there was vas a big tat fat squirrel on tho the rail tenet just now she said eat ing something so busily that be he would nt budge even when I 1 threw things at him there t any stones so I 1 used those hard green things on abee trees they were just right to throw and he jumped so when the last one bit hit him I 1 fled to keep from doing violence to pearl the N annicks are jolly people and I 1 anticipated their coming with special pleasure I 1 showed them tho the place ft it takes five minutes to exhaust the sights of my estate and with a burst at 0 pride dilated on the fact t that at even in t these hese wilds there are comforts and that I 1 have a bath room with running water of course I 1 added its it s cold water but then just consider having havin g an kind right in the house mr air leaned weakly against a wall do you mean to bay say he got out tragically tl U at you don t have hot water cerep no hot water you heat it on the alcohol lamp to shave I 1 explained and for a hot bath we heat beat it on the kitchen stove and carry it in but the water la is so soft that I 1 prefer the cold tub mr clapped his hand to his brow and went and eat sat in a corner and moped oer the awful calamity of no unlimited hot water all the time they were here his wife and I 1 spent most of it stoking the kitchen stove so that it if Vali neek took a sudden fancy tor for a hot bath there would be plenty of water the thermometer stood above 90 and every one vias vas going around with perspiration dripping from the end ot of bis his nose seeking coolness but when ever I 1 encountered Vati necks s re signed reproachful eye I 1 felt that I 1 had blighted his comfort mrs van neck tried to apologize she said he was so dependent on the ordinary comforts of life and tint wit one had to humor him it if I 1 were married to I 1 know how I 1 d humor him I 1 d tie it alm ilm in a bag and sink him in the coldest spot in the lake lakel I 1 i |