s wheel off toward the barn.

"Of course," I called after him, "I'm not _going_ to plant any. I was
only saying _if_."

Perhaps the sweet peas began it, but I really think the whole thing
began with the phlox.

One afternoon in August I walked down the road through the woods to meet
Jonathan. As he came up to me and dismounted I held out to him a spray
of white phlox.

"Where do you suppose I found it?" I asked.

"Down by the old Talcott place," he hazarded.

"No. There is some there, but this was growing under our crab-apple
trees, right beside the house."

"Well, now, it must have been some of Aunt Deborah's. I remember hearing
Uncle Ben say she used to have her garden there; that must have been
before he started the crab orchard. Why, that phlox can't be less than
forty years old, anyway."

"Dear me!" I took back the delicate spray; "it doesn't look it."

"No. Don't you wish you could look like that when you're forty?" he
philosophized; and added, "Is there much of it?"

"Five or six roots, but there won't be many blossoms, it's so shady."

"We might move it and give it a chance."

"Let's! We'll dig it up this fall, and put it over on the south side of
the house, in that sunny open place."

When October came, we took Aunt Deborah's phlox and transplanted it to
where it could get the sunshine it had been starving for all those
years. I sat on a stump and watched Jonathan digging the holes.

"You don't suppose Henry will cut them down for weeds when they come up,
do you?" I said.

"Seems probable," said Jonathan. "You might stick in a few bulbs that'll
come up early and mark the spot."

"Oh, yes. And we could put a line of sweet alyssum along each side, to
last along after the bulbs are over."

"You can do that in the spring if you want to. I'll bring up some bulbs
to-morrow."

* * * * *

The winter passed and the spring came--sweet, tormenting.

"Jonathan," I said at luncheon one day, "I got the sweet alyssum seed
this morning.

"Sweet alyssum?" He looked blank. "What do you want sweet alyssum for?
It's a foolish flower. I thought you weren't going to have a garden,
anyway."

"I'm not; but don't you remember about the phlox? We said we'd put in
some sweet alyssum to mark it--so it wouldn't get cut down."

"The bulbs will do that, and when they're gone it will be high enough to
show."

"Well, I have the seed, and I might as well use it. It won't do any
har