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Show SeIiLr Slices iiS I L, J Wijbl prichard mra i COPVR.IOKT t& 0OU6L6OAV, OAtie v CO. CHAPTER XVII Continued. 17 As the busy autumn da.vs came upon us. Twin Fires took on a new aspect, nnd one to us greenhorns indescribably thrilling. In the first place, our field of. corn rustled perpetually ns we walked past it. and down in the greenish-golden lanes beneath we could see he orange gleam of pungkins (I shall so spell the word lest it be mispronounced mispro-nounced by the ignorant). Great ears of the Stowell's evergreen were ripe, for Mike's -prediction about the early frost had not come true, and we ate the succulent food clean to the cob every ev-ery day at dinner, besides selling mnnj dozens of ears to the market. In the long light of afternoon. Stoila loved to go along the path -by the hay field wall and then turn in amid the corn, losing Bight at once of all the universe and wandering in a new world of rustling leaves. She felt, she said, just ns Alice must have felt after she had eaten the cake; and once a rabbit bounded across her foot, to her unspeakable delight. de-light. She looked to see if lie had dropped his gloves! Then there was the potato field. We were eating our own new potatoes cow. Often Stella dug them. "It seems so funny to go and dig up a potato." she declared. "I've always felt that potatoes just were. I!ut to see the whole process of growth is quite another matter. Oh. John, it makes them so much nicer!" "Especially when you are getting seventy-five cents a bushel for them." I laughed. The loaded tomato vines, too. wi'li the red fruit hanging out from the wire frames and sending a pungent odor Into the surrounding air. appealed to Stella endlessly. I used to pee her no-.v and then, as I glanced from the south room of a morning, eating a raw tomato to-mato like an apple, her Imad bent for ward so that the juice would not spoil her dress. And there were the apples! Already a red a-itra.-han tree invite, 1 us on every trip to the brook, and other old trees .were hearing fast-re Men':1.!: fruit. I had wanted to sot out more orchard, but we agreed that we coii'd not afford it that year, if we were to build chicken houses against the spring, so I reluctantly gave up the idea, Put our old trees, in spio of for p'-rhips because of; n:.v spring pruning, were do. tig fairly well. We had enough for baked n'.plos and cream all waiter, anyhow, S'ol.a reckoned, reck-oned, smacking her hps at the thought. Every day. on our way to the pool, one or the other of .us took a hoe along and scraped a tree for live in I nub's, gradually porting the old bark off. and milking a final preparation for a thorough thor-ough sprayln.: tie nest winter just so much easier. I used to prune a bit. too. In spare moments, so that by the end of the summer considerable renovation bad been accomplished. And now came the foxglove transplanting. trans-planting. According to the gardener's directions, we took two long rows whore the early peas) had stood (and where Mike had disobey.., my Instructions Instruc-tions to spade th" vines under, that being a form of green manuring your old-time gardener will not see the value of, I have discovered, trenched them, put In manure and foil, and set out at least three hundred foxglove plants six Inches apart. It was a cool, cloudy day. and they stood up as though nothing had happened. Then as an experiment, we move d scores of tiny hollyhocks from the crowded seed-bods seed-bods into their permanent po-ilioii as i il Si-roe;, between th" SollHl k I t ' 1 ' windows and the sundial lawn, and as j n border 0:1 tic west side of the s 1:110 law 11. The;,-, too. were quite unaffcot-' ed by the change, Mea 11 '.' !, lie, wo ordered OUT blllbs hyaojnths, daffodils (which in onr climate cli-mate refuse to fake the winds of Map-h wPh beauty, cowardly waiting till Mayi. a few ero"ij -,-t. Narcissus pooti-riM, pooti-riM, llmpre-s nareis.us. lienrian his. .la pa in -c dris :nd lurwln tulips. We ordered the iris and tulips In named va l ietle-,, "'I hey have such nice names," said Stella, "c-poojally the Japanese Iris Kind ito i.,.-.-uml, Shiralal.i. M01110-ehlgumal M01110-ehlgumal The tulips ai e nice, loo. Here is Ariadne and Kate nroonnway bolinol.l, ng with Prof. -sor Uaiiv.en-holT.' Uaiiv.en-holT.' What's the use of having plants that aren't named? We niu-t show llierri as much p- poet as Antony and Cleopatra, or llpiolclus and I,uela!" Wo al o experimented with lilies lemon lilies for lie- iliady norlh side of 'ho boll e. ( : ;'f -I s for the border ,o yoi.d 1 lie pool, and two or three of the ctp n i'-o M;. riophyilil'ns, Ju I lo k 9 v that we, too, could go in for the cxi.iio. ppe our lieichl.ors Oil the big odatos. When til" bulbs fa to", ill October, W" lo oi'-d II I the bo . M Had ly. "Whcu!" sal 1 .'irlla. "you can't be I u 7 y inel ha '. e a ga rdeii, 1 11 you V" " don't work tomorrow, I giiem," , ,,J I "Shall We Md; Mipe'M Joe In help US?" I ever!" mild m.V wife, "We'll pill fh."e liill'ei in oui 'elvca. If I had liny j help. I -lioilld feel 111:" the I Id: si 1 011 1 a, , ; I, I, (,od forbid!" I - ,, (,) licit day nt koi en Ihli ty we I n We rh.U'd 'he pool wllli Or man and Japanese iris, alternated for succession, and planted a few Japanese Japa-nese both below and above the pool, close to the brook. We set the Narcissus Narcis-sus poeticus bulbs where, if they grew, the flowers could look at themselves in the mirror below the dam. The Empress Em-press narcissus we placed on both sides of the pool just beyond the iris. On each side of the bench we placed a bulb of our precious Myriophyllums. and put the tigers into the borders close to the shrubbery on both sides. The hyacinths went into the sundial beds, the Darwins into the beds at the base of the rose aqueduct, a few crocuses cro-cuses into the sundial lawn, and the daffodils here and there all over the place, where the fancy struck us and the ground invited. "Now, I'm going to label everything, and put it on a map besides," cried Stella, "except the daffodils. I want to forget where they are. I want surprises sur-prises in the spring. Oh. John, do you suppose they'll come up?" "Yes. I suppose they will," I laughed, "some of them. But do you suppose we'll ever get the kinks out of our backs?" "I'm willing to go doubled up all the rest of my life for a garden of daffodils daffo-dils ai! my own," she cried. .-Xnd then my heart with pleasure thrills And dances with the riafToiiMs "It was very thoughtful of old Wordsworth, Words-worth, and Shakespeare, and MasetieM. and all the rest to write nice things about daffodils, wasn't it. John? I wonder if gardens would lie so wonderful won-derful if it weren't for nil their literary lit-erary suggestion, and the lovely things they remind you of? Gardens have so much atmosphere! (ih. spring, spring, hurry and cotne!" I I forgo- n. y lame back in her en'hu-1 en'hu-1 -h'siii. and later, when the apples were gathered, the potatoes dug, the beets an 1 carrots in the root cellar, our own sweet cider foamed in a glass pitcher en our table, and the first snow spits of Iiecember whirled across the f.,.,s. we put a li'tle long manure over the irises and o'fcer .;!.. and pir.e boughs over' the remaiaitig perennials, and wrapped tie ramblers In straw, with almost as mm-li laughing tenderness as you would put a child to bed. Th" cows were back in the stable, and Ml!;e had revised his opinion of cork-asphalt Iloors when he reall.ed the i-:ni' of cleaning with a hose; the potatoes and apples and onions ami beets and carrots for our family use were stored In barrels and bins in the collar, or spread on shelves, ,,r burled in sand. The vegetal, garden was newly plowed, and manure sorea.J on 'he hayholl. Antony and Cleopatra had I n captured and brought into ti e dining room, where th--y were to sp.-nd Ha- winter In a gi.i-s bowl. Ilplc-li'-m at I I.uella and III 1 lys and Cay-t:or Cay-t:or had all burrowed out of sight into the ground. The pageant of autumn on our hills was over, only an ame'l yst haze succeeding at snn-ot time. Wool lires sparkled in our twin hearths. The summer residents had departed. Our first Thanksgiving turkey had been eaten, though n great stone crock of Mrs. rillig's incomp.: ra lile mincemeat slid yielded up Its treasures for ambrosial am-brosial pies. "And now." said Stella, "I'm going to tin. I out nt last what a country winter win-ter Is like!" "A uO jour friends are ;'',;.an;' you dow n In town." said I. "bmi't v "ii want to go back to them tin spring?" Si-lla looked at the I,,,-., s:. 1 ,ed it over II, bare garden and the P'oWed fields to Hie dill! hillsides. 'in' Si- ! a llioniolli to the VV hi ,1 e of the bleak II tuber wind, she looked at me. 1 I.j her eves I re ad b'-r a 11 w cr. I C HA PTC Ft XVIII. Horns N'on Numcro Nisi Sercn.it). Itut this slory Is. after all, 1111 Idyl, -and the idyl Is drawing to lis do o. liven IH the Old Tine,. (looker carried Hi e, pcoj.lo to the Mauds of the IP.' :t, my little tale call only end with "and Ihey lived ha ppy ever a Tier. " That second summer at Twin hires, of course, ijiowed ns many things yet to be done. Neilher Home llol Ihe hiimlde-t garden was ever built in a day. Our ramblers did Ibclrdiily well, but the grape arbor and Ihe pergola would not be covered properly In a Kca-otl. There were holes In the Mower beds lo be tilled by annuals, and mis-tal.es mis-tal.es made In succession, so thai July found ns with many patches de.iliuie of any bloom. Out In the vegetable area there were first ontworniH and then drought mid potato Might lo be fontonded willi. In our Ignorance wo I'oglcolod o w alcli Ihe holl.l hocks for nil mat till suddenly whole plants began be-gan lo lib', and we had lo spray mudl with bordeaux and pull oil' a great heap of I r. feeled leaves, to save any blooms nl all. There were Hearing'! to be mad" lii the pines for ferny spots, and enii-'iimt work to be done about the pool lo k"cp the wild hushes from coming back. There were chickens to bo looked nrter now, ai so, nnd new re sponMilillll ie In the village Tor both of 11s. We had iicllher aMempled nor desired to avoid our full 'hare of civic woik. We lived 11 iiu-.v life, with not an hour In Ihe day Idle, and few hours in Uto evening. We lived so full a life, indeed, that it was only by preserving pre-serving nn absolute routine for my ow n bread-winning labors, from 0 a. in till one, that I was able to .-esist the siren call of farm ntul garden, and get my dally stint eomplished. The preceding summer I had made about two hundred dollars out of my produce, 'which in my first naive enthusiasm en-thusiasm pleased me greatly. Hut it was surely a poor return on my invest-" ment. reckoned merely in dollars and cents, and the second seasou showed a different result. Having two cows and a small family, I managed to dispose dis-pose of my surplus milk and cream to a farmer who ran a milk route. This brought me in $73 a year. As I further saved at least $1110 by not haying hay-ing to buy milk, and SdO by 1'eter's efforts nt the churn, and could reckon a further profit from manure and calves, my cows were worth between three hundred and four hundred dollars dol-lars a year to me. Now that we had hens and chickens, we could reckon on another SbHl saved in egg and poultry poul-try bills. To this total I was able to add at the end of the summer more than five hundred dollars received from the sale of fruit and vegetables, not only to the market but to the hotels. ho-tels. I was the only person in I'.ent-ford I'.ent-ford who had cultivated raspberries for sale, for instance, nnd the fact that I could deliver them absolutely fresh to the hotels was appreciated In so debcate a fruit. Stella and I'cter were the pickers. I also supplied the inns with peas, cauliflowers and tomatoes. toma-toes. Thus the farm was actually paying pay-ing me in cash or saving at least a thousand dollars a year indeed, much more, since we had no fruit nor vegetable vege-table bills the year through. Mrs. Tillig being an artist in preserving what would not keep in the cellar. Hut we will call it a thousand dollars, and let the rest go ns interest on the investment invest-ment represented by seeds and implements. imple-ments. To offset this. I paid Mike J'ioO a year, and employed his son Joe at ?1 T." a day for twenty weeks. This left me a profit of about two hundred dollars on my first full season at Twin I'ires. which pah! my taxes and bought my coal, (jut of my salary, then, came 11 1 rent, no bills for butter, eggs, milk, poultry nor vegetables. I had to pay Mrs. l':i:ig her ..-'o a month therefrom, I had to pay the upkeep of the place, and grocery nnd meat bills (the la'tcr being e.cnpar.a'ively 5 : n summon. Hut with the great item ,,f rent eliminated, elimi-nated, and my farm help paying for i'-c'f. It was astonl-hing to me to contemplate con-template what a beautiful, comfort-j able home we Wore able to afford on an income whi h la N.v York would j ''""i" i:s in an upper West side apart- j meat. We had tlilr-y irt'S of beautl- fill land, wo had a brook, a pine grove, an or. hard, a not ton formal garden, a lovely lions... In which we were slowly a-.scu:hllt:g mahogany furniture w hi. h lit'cd it. We had summer society soci-ety as .o;,h;; ica'ed as we cared to mix j with, and winter so.-i.ey to which we' cul 1 give gl. ..)!. of ..Mr own Mores 1 of knowledge or entlni- asm and litid Joy ill the giving. We had health as I never before, au I air mi l sunhltie and :i wor d of be.Mi'y ail about us to the far. blue v.--ill of hi'ls. Above all. wo hid the torpotua! In- j cei'lwe ,,f garb'l i :g to ko.p our eyes toward the future. A tine garden,! Il'.o a 1"? .veil lived. s fo-ever becmn- ! big. fore-"- u process, forcer Icn'ing on toward new goals. Life. !ud 1. goes hand In hand with y ur garden, and never a fair thought but ymi write it In flowers, nevir a beautiful picture but yon nilnt It If y.ui can, and with the s'rlving learn pi'Ieiice, end with the half accomplishment the "divine unrest." HORAS NON NL'MERO NISI SERENAS SERE-NAS reads the ancient motto on our dial plate, it ii-I as I look back on the years of Tw In I'ires' genes s, or forward Into the future, the hours that are not sunny are Indeed not marked for mo. I am wilting now nt a table heueat'l the pergola. The 11, M.r Is of brick, laid I - o 1 1 1 e v. i 1 a f Iri'e gira rly I by S'elia and hie. r ,r w e sM'l a : ,. poor, 11 s the Mel;, shams would red. on poverty, nnd none of w hat Mrs, I id nil has ,;.:!, I "Ihe grim Inhibitions ,.f v.-il!li" prevents ns from doing whitever we can with our own hands, and finding therein 11 d'.nli'o !, r 0 th 11. in or tn v hen 1 rust lo the I hn 1, vines -a w I da rla ' ig 1 1 1 1 1 1 . wlii. h may or may not surv ive another w inter. It Is June a - tin. I k now that a path now wanders up the brook nl- II o t o the road, amid the w ild l uigle. nnd ends suddenly In the m o d nnex-poiled nnex-poiled nook bonealh n willow tree, w here Irises fringe a second tiny pool, I Know that the path vtlll wanders Ihe "Hut vriiv into tin' phii's - pines larger now and more murmurous of the sea pisl bods of ferns and a lone cardinal Power that will bloom In a shaft of Miiillght. Somewhere down (hat path in.v wife Is wandering, and she la not alone. A lilt le form lat least she sai vs II has foriuli sleeps beside her, while tin' Mils, perhaps, with a book, or mom likely with sowing In her busy fingers, or mote likely still wllh hands Unit stray toward Ihe sleeping child and ears thai ll-don lo the seashell murmur of the pines whispering secrets of the fulure. Is In- to be a Napoleon or a I'uslciir? No less a genius, surely, the prophellc pines whisper to the listening listen-ing luolller! My own pen halls In lis progress and Ihe Ink dries on the point. And hark, from the pines a liny cry I Call he want his rather' 'II III IIXII. Fit tor the Part. WITey- What do you think baby will 1 nine when ho grown up? Iliihby Well, he'11 had experience enough to bo a low iiiu mr, - Town 'J' 'v Icn. |