The potatoes and cabbages and onions are really
important, but I am proudest of my young peas and my peppers and
cucumbers and tomatoes, and that's the way of the world, isn't it? If
there was only an aristocracy things would stop, but the common folk
could go on alone until the end of time."

She gave Jean a blue bowl to pick strawberries in; and Derry dug
asparagus--the creamy shoots were tipped with pale purple and pink,
deepening into green where they had stood too long in the sun.

"Aren't there any flowers?" Jean was anxious.

"Come and see." The old woman went ahead of them, her cane tap-tapping
on the stone flags.

She opened a gate which was flanked by brick walls. "These," she said,
whimsically, "are my jewels."

[Illustration: "These are my jewels."]

All the sweetness which had once spread over her domain was concentrated
here, fragrance and flame--roses, iris, peonies--honeysuckle--ruby and
emerald, amethyst and gold; a Cupid riding a swan, with water pouring
from his quiver into a shallow marble basin.

"I should not have dared keep this, if it had not been for the other--"
the old woman told them. "I am very sure that in these days God walks in
vegetable gardens--"

For breakfast they had strawberries and radishes, thin little corn
cakes--and two fresh eggs from the chickens which most triumphantly
occupied the conservatory.

"This is the only way I can do my bit," the old lady explained, "by
helping with the world's food supply. My eyes are bad and I cannot sew,
my fingers are twisted and I cannot knit, and Dennis is old--but we plan
the garden and plant--"

And that night Jean said to Derry, "I am glad there were flowers to make
it lovesome--and I am glad there were vegetables to make it right."

So he drew a waving field of corn back of the dream cottage, and tomatoes
and peas to the right and left--with onions in a stiff row along the
border, and potatoes storming the hillside. But the gate which led to
the Lovesome Garden was open wide, so that one might see the Cupid as he
rode his swan.

THE LAST DAY

It was on the tenth day that Derry said, "We have our house and the
furniture for it, and we have built an altar, and found our friends, and
we have planted a garden--what shall we do on the last day?"

And Jean said, rather unexpectedly, "We will go to the circus."

"To the circus?"

"Yes. And take the children--they are dying to go, and Margaret can't.
It is up to you a