y of admission
to the woman's garden where there is only time and room for the best
results.

But here I am rambling at large instead of plainly answering your
question, "What annuals can we plant as late as this (May 25) while we
are locating the rose bed?" You may plant any or all of them up to the
first of June, the success of course depending upon a long autumn and
late frosts. No, not quite all; the tall-growing sweet peas should be in
the ground not later than May 1 in this south New England latitude,
though in the northern states and Canada they are planted in June as a
matter of course. Blanche Ferry, of the brilliant pink-and-white
complexion, however, will do very nicely in the light of a labour-saving
afterthought, as, only reaching a foot and a half high, little, if any,
brush is needed.

[Illustration: ASTERS WELL MASSED.]

We found your rose list replete with charming varieties, but most of
them too delicate for positive success hereabouts. I'm sending you
presently the list for a fifty-dollar rose garden, which it seems is
much in demand, so that I've adapted my own experience to the simple
plan that Evan drew to enlighten amateur rose lovers and turn them from
coveting their wealthy neighbours' goods to spending their energy in
producing covetable roses of their own!

By the way, I send you my own particular list of Worthy Annuals to match
the hardy plants and keep heights and colours easily before you until
your own Garden Book is formulated and we can compare notes. (See page
387.)

You forgot to tell me whether you have decided to keep hens or not! I
know that the matter has been discussed every spring since you have
lived at Woodridge. If you are planning a hennery, I shall not encourage
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 cooeperation. As I am a devotee of the
ornamental and comfortable, Martha Saunders _nee_ Corkle runs a
cooeperative 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 o