The Cape Girardeau Democrat., 1895-08-31
WHO RANG THE BELL?
BY LUKE SHARP.

A man who has business in the city
every day little realizes the delights
of his own suburban home He leaves
the place early in the morning and he
comes home tired at night, and thus he
misses the pleasures that he would en-
joy if he spent the whole day at his
own house.
Recently, ! resolved to get a bit
ahead with my work, and so l aban-
doned the city and all its ways, deter
mined to stay at home until l had
written a number of those stories
which are the delight of two CONT
nents, while in the intervals l could
polish of few novels that the world
is eagerly waiting for; thus 1 became
acquainted with my own plot of land,
which l had seen hitherto only on Sun
days found that my back yard was
an idyllic place in which to write, and
furnished myself with one wicker
chair to sit in ard another on which to
put my feet, while the low table at my
elbow held the manuscript. Land is
SO expensive in England that we make
much of our back yards. An English
y
plot of land than any other man l ever
saw. He will take small bit of
ground. and, by judicious planting of
shrubbery, the making of walks, and
the utilizing of whatever trees there
may be on the place, will make it look
to the casual observer like large es-
tate. The soil is very productive, and
the climate is generally SO mild the
whole year around that plants hardly
ever stop growing. OF course if one
has large place man has a gardener
of his own, but we people with small
lots are content with gardener who
comes in once or twice a week, or
perhaps three times, if things are
growing very rapidly. 1 never knew
the particulars of this until l stayed
at home. Not being an inquisitive
man, my occasional glimpses of the
back yard had never suggested to me
that all this neatneSS and order was
the result of human Intervention.
thought it was part of my contract
with the landlord, and one of the rea-
sons why l was paying him rent; so as
l sat at my work, | was aStonlShed to
find a man with n wheelbarrow full of
tools trundle it from the front of the
house into the back yard. l asked him
what the mischief he was doing there,
and why he came in without she for
mality of ringing, for he seemed to
have key to my private gate; he |
was equally aStoniShed to find me on |
the premises, and a mutual explana- |
tion resulted in his discovering that l |
was the proprietor, and my learning |
that he was my gardener.
When l owned a back and front |
yard in America, neither was of much |
use to me. The back yard was exceed
ingly small, and was the home of the |
ash-bin, and the dumping ground of |
various disabled utensils pertaining to
the kitchen. 1t was not thing of
beauty. The front yard was all right
enough, but il belonged more to the
public than to myself. There was no
fence between the house and the
street, and / would as soon have
thought of sitting down on the side
walk as lounging about on the bit of
grass which was IN front of my resi-
dence An Englishman,' however,
keeps his yards for his own use. He
believes, if he pays rent and taxes for
a plot of ground, that that plot of
ground is his for the time being; con-
sequeutly he puts high wall around
it, and is as secluded in his back yard
as though he were in his own drawing
room.
NV house Is situated on a sort of still
baclzwater just out of the main current
of traffic A celebrated old coaching
road running in the direction of Ep-
som passes near enough to be handy,
and so far away that we are out of the
noise of the traffic. Out of this main
road there runs a street in the form
of semi-circle. 1t leaves the main
road for no particular reason, and
joins it again for no particular reason,
and in the center of this bow my
house, with the front and back
yards, is situated. 1t is delight
fully quiet spot, for no vehicle comes
into this peaceful road unless it has
business at one OF the six or seven
houses that are situated upon this
street, which can hardly be called
thoroughfare. My back yard wall,
therefore, is segment of circle. 1t
is eight feet high, and is what is called
an English park fence, which means
that it is made of upright split oak
slabs overlapping each other. This
kind Of fence is said to cost as much
and last as long as a brick wall. 1t is