the artist.

As a rule it is easier to do much work than little. The man who is
underworked rarely does the little that he has to do thoroughly and
punctually. The more leisure one has, the more one desires.

I feel confident that if I had a thousand rose trees, I should be up
bright and early in the morning to do for them all that they required. I
should study the literature on the subject and become expert. Possibly I
should not go so far as some experts, who provide a kind of conical tin
hat for each rose bloom to shelter it from the rain. But it would not be
slackness which would stay my hand; it would be because I cannot think
that the conical tin hat adds greatly to the beauty of the garden.

But I have not got a thousand rose trees. It is none the less essential
that I should cut off all the dead blooms. This labour, carried out with
no unseemly haste, might possibly occupy me for five minutes.

And how many times have I shirked those five minutes of labour? I am
shirking them now. Let me see, where are the scissors?

CHAPTER IV

THE FOUNTAIN: AND THE STORY OF "THE LITTLE DEATH"

I will admit that I very nearly erected a sun-dial in my garden. There
was a kind of snobbery about it. So many artistic people have erected
sun-dials in their gardens, that I supposed that I should be artistic if
I erected a sun-dial in mine. But all the time, somewhere at the back of
my head, was the conviction that the thing was rotten. I knew it was
rotten some time before I knew the reason why.

Sun-dials are not used nowadays for the purpose of telling the time. It
is therefore insincere and affected to put a sun-dial in a modern
garden. It is not conscientious. It is like the artificial creation of
worm-holes in the spurious-antique furniture. Where the sun-dial already
exists in an old garden one may be glad of it, but one may not
deliberately put a sun-dial into a new garden.

So I put in a fountain.

The simplest and most satisfactory way to get a fountain in one's garden
is to buy one from the fountain shop, make arrangements with the Water
Company, and get a real plumber to fix it. This did not appeal to me.
There was no adventure about it, it would cost too much, and I knew that
I should hate shop-fountains. I therefore designed and made my own
fountain, and will now instruct others how they may make one which will
be nearly as bad and delightful.

The first step is to find among your acquaintances a f