is last prompted
by a glance at the great golden fellows nodding in the wheat beneath my
window. Then the razor descended. Shaving was always an absorbing task,
and I did not glance out of the window again until the operation was
completed. And then I was bewildered. Surely this was not my poppy
field. No--and yes, for there were the tall pines clustering austerely
together on one side, the magnolia tree burdened with bloom, and the
Japanese quinces splashing the driveway hedge with blood. Yes, it was
the field, but no wave of poppy-flame spilled down it, nor did the great
golden fellows nod in the wheat beneath my window. I rushed into a
jacket and out of the house. In the far distance were disappearing two
huge balls of colour, orange and yellow, for all the world like
perambulating poppies of cyclopean breed.

"Johnny," said I to the nine-year-old son of my sister, "Johnny, whenever
little girls come into our field to pick poppies, you must go down to
them, and in a very quiet and gentlemanly manner, tell them it is not
allowed."

Warm days came, and the sun drew another blaze from the free-bosomed
earth. Whereupon a neighbour's little girl, at the behest of her mother,
duly craved and received permission from Bess to gather a few poppies for
decorative purposes. But of this I was uninformed, and when I descried
her in the midst of the field I waved my arms like a semaphore against
the sky.

"Little girl!" called I. "Little girl!"

The little girl's legs blurred the landscape as she fled, and in high
elation I sought Bess to tell of the potency of my voice. Nobly she came
to the rescue, departing forthwith on an expedition of conciliation and
explanation to the little girl's mother. But to this day the little girl
seeks cover at sight of me, and I know the mother will never be as
cordial as she would otherwise have been.

Came dark, overcast days, stiff, driving winds, and pelting rains, day on
day, without end, and the city folk cowered in their dwelling-places like
flood-beset rats; and like rats, half-drowned and gasping, when the
weather cleared they crawled out and up the green Piedmont slopes to bask
in the blessed sunshine. And they invaded my field in swarms and droves,
crushing the sweet wheat into the earth and with lustful hands ripping
the poppies out by the roots.

"I shall put up the warnings against trespassing," I said.

"Yes," said Bess, with a sigh. "I'm afraid it is necessary