quick-growing but monotonous bedding plants for fillers. Can you imagine
anything more jarring and inconsistent than cannas, castor-oil beans,
coleus, and nasturtiums in a prim setting of box?

"Then, too, last Christmas, Bart's parents sent us a dear old sundial,
with a very good fluted column for a base. The motto reads 'Never
consult me at night,' which Bart insists is an admonition for us to
keep, chickenlike, early hours! Be this as it may, in order to live up
to the dial, the beds that form its court must be consistently
clothed--for cannas, coleus, and beans, read peonies, Madonna lilies,
sweet-william, clove-pinks, and hollyhocks, which latter the seed bed I
hope will duly furnish.

"All these details, and more too, I poured into the ears of _The Man
from Everywhere_, while Bart kept rather silent, but I could tell by the
way his pipe breathed, short and quick, that he was thinking hard. One
has to be a little careful in talking over plans and wishes with Bart;
his spirit is generous beyond his pocket-power and he is a bit
sensitive. He wants to do so much for the Infant, the home, and me, that
when desire outruns the purse, he seems to feel that the limit lies
somewhere within the range of his own incapacity, and that bare,
camel-backed knoll outlining the horizon, as seen from the dining-room
window, showing the roof of the abandoned barn and hen yards, and the
difficulty of wrestling with it, is an especially tender spot.

"'If it was anything possible, I'd hump my back and do it, but it
isn't!' he jerked, knocking his pipe against the chimney-side before it
was half empty and then refilling it; 'it's either a vacation _or_ the
knoll--which shall it be?