The Solitary Summer | Page 6

between amusement at the notion of Spenser's
daffadowndillies being modern, and indignation at hearing exactly the
same adjective applied to them that the woman who sells me my hats
bestows on the most appalling examples of her stock.
"They are to be in troops on the grass," I said; whereupon his face grew
doubtful. "That is indeed sehr modern," I shouted. But he had grown
suddenly deafer--a phenomenon I have observed to occur every time
my orders are such as he has never been given before. After a time he
will, I think, become imbued with my unorthodoxy in these matters;
and meanwhile he has the true gardening spirit and loves his work, and
love, after all, is the chief thing. I know of no compost so good. In the

poorest soil, love alone, by itself, will work wonders.
Down the garden path, past the copse of lilacs with their swelling dark
buds, and the great three-cornered bed of tea roses and pansies in front
of it, between the rows of china roses and past the lily and foxglove
groups, we came last night to the spring garden in the open glade round
the old oak; and there, the first to flower of the flowering trees, and
standing out like a lovely white naked thing against the dusk of the
evening, was a double cherry in full bloom, while close beside it, but
not so visible so late, with all their graceful growth outlined by rosy
buds, were two Japanese crab apples. The grass just there is filled with
narcissus, and at the foot of the oak a colony of tulips consoles me for
the loss of the purple crocus patches, so lovely a little while since.
"I must be by myself for once a whole summer through," I repeated,
looking round at these things with a feeling of hardly being able to bear
their beauty, and the beauty of the starry sky, and the beauty of the
silence and the scent--"I must be alone, so that I shall not miss one of
these wonders, and have leisure really to live."
"Very well, my dear," replied the Man of Wrath, "only do not grumble
afterwards when you find it dull. You shall be solitary if you choose,
and, as far as I am concerned, I will invite no one. It is always best to
allow a woman to do as she likes if you can, and it saves a good deal of
bother. To have what she desired is generally an effective punishment."
"Dear Sage," I cried, slipping my hand through his arm, "don't be so
wise! I promise you that I won't be dull, and I won't be punished, and I
will be happy."
And we sauntered slowly back to the house in great contentment,
discussing the firmament and such high things, as though we knew all
about them.
May 15th.--There is a dip in the rye-fields about half a mile from my
garden gate, a little round hollow like a dimple, with water and reeds at
the bottom, and a few water-loving trees and bushes on the shelving
ground around. Here I have been nearly every morning lately, for it
suits the mood I am in, and I like the narrow footpath to it through the
rye, and I like its solitary dampness in a place where everything is
parched, and when I am lying on the grass and look down I can see the
reeds glistening greenly in the water, and when I look up I can see the
rye-fringe brushing the sky. All sorts of beasts come and stare at me,

and larks sing above me, and creeping things crawl over me, and stir in
the long grass beside me; and here I bring my book, and read and
dream away the profitable morning hours, to the accompaniment of the
amorous croakings of innumerable frogs.
Thoreau has been my companion for some days past, it having struck
me as more appropriate to bring him out to a pond than to read him, as
was hitherto my habit, on Sunday mornings in the garden. He is a
person who loves the open air, and will refuse to give you much
pleasure if you try to read him amid the pomp and circumstance of
upholstery; but out in the sun, and especially by this pond, he is
delightful, and we spend the happiest hours together, he making
statements, and I either agreeing heartily, or just laughing and reserving
my opinion till I shall have more ripely considered the thing. He, of
course, does not like me as much as I like him, because I live in a cloud
of dust and germs produced by wilful superfluity of furniture, and have
not the courage to get a match and set light