a box of
sandwiches was found under the seat in company with Romeo's nose-bag of
oats, this indication being that, as Barney alone knew directly of our
destination, he must have informed Anastasia, who took pity, regarding
us, as she does, as a cross between lunatics and the babes in the woods.

We chose byways, and only crossed the macadamized highroad, that haunt
of automobiles, once, and after an hour's sauntering crossed the river
and drove into the woodlots to the north of it, now the property of the
water company, who have already posted warning to trespassers. We
straightway began to trespass, seeing _The Man from Everywhere_ on
horseback coming down to meet us.

Without an apparent change of soil or altitude, the scenery at once grew
more bold and dramatic.

"What is it?" I said. "We have been driving through lanes lined by
dogwood and yet that little tree below and the scrubby bit of hillside
make a more perfect picture than any we have seen!"

[Illustration: THE PICTORIAL VALUE OF EVERGREENS.]

Bart, who had left the buggy and was walking beside it with _The Man_,
who had dismounted and led his nag, turned and looked backward, but did
not answer.

"It is the evergreens that give it the quality," said _The Man_, "even
though they are only those stiff little Noah's-ark cedars. I notice it
far and wide, wherever I go; a landscape is never monotonous so long as
there is a pine, spruce, hemlock, or bit of a cedar to bind it together.
I believe that is why I am never content for long in the land of palms!"

"I love evergreens in winter, but I've never thought much about them in
the growing leafy season; they seem unimportant then," I said.

"Unimportant or not, they are still there. Look at that wall of trees
rising across the river! Every conceivable tint of green is there,
besides shades of pink and lavender in leaf case and catkin, but what
dominates and translates the whole? The great hemlocks on the crest and
the dark pointed cedars off on the horizon where the woodland thins
toward the pastures. Whether you separate them or not, they are there.
People are only just beginning to understand the value of evergreens in
their home gardens, both as windbreaks and backgrounds. No, I don't mean
stark, isolated specimens, stiff as Christmas trees. You have a
magnificent chance to use them on that knoll of yours that you are going
to restore!"

As he was speaking I thought Bart paid very scant attention, but