the rosary, for the days of a commuter's wife are not long enough for
both without encountering nervous prostration on the immediate premises.

Some problems are ably solved by coöperation. As I am a devotee of the
ornamental and comfortable, Martha Saunders _née_ Corkle runs a
coöperative hen-yard in our north pasture for the benefit of the
Cortrights and ourselves to our mutual joy!




VI

THEIR FORTUNATE ESCAPE

CONCERNING EVERGREENS AND HENS

(Mary Penrose to Barbara Campbell)


_June 5._ I have not dipped pen in ink for an entire week, which has
been one of stirring events, for not only have we wholly emerged from
indoor life, but we have had a hair-breadth escape from something that
not only threatened to mar the present summer, but to cast so heavy a
shadow over the garden that no self-respecting flowers could flourish
even under the thought of it. You cannot possibly guess with what we
were threatened, but I am running ahead of myself.

The day that we began _it_--the vacation--by stopping the clocks, we
overslept until nine o'clock. When we came downstairs, the house was in