The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-08-29
WHO RANG THE BELL?
BY LUKE SHARP.

BN LUX F. SHAkP.
 man who has business in the city every day little realizes the delights 7f 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- iov if he spent the whole day at h;s own house.
 Recently, l resolved to get bit ahead with my work, and so l aban- doned the city and all it's ways, deter mined to stay at home until l had written a number of those stories which are the delight of two conti- ueuts, while in the intervals I could polish of a few novels that the world is eagerly waiting for; thus l became acquainted with my own plot of land, which 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 and 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 gardener will do more with little plot of land tban any other man ever saw. He will take small bit of ground. and, by judicious planting of shru bbery, 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 a man has gardener of his own, but we people with small lots are content with a gardener who comes in once or twice a week, or perhaps three times, if things are growing very rapidly. l 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 req sons why was paying him rent; so as sat at my work, was astonished to find man with q wheelbarrow full ot 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 the for mality of ringing, for hs seemed to have a 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 was the proprietor, and my learning that he was my gardener.
 When I owned back and front 7ard 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 ot various disabled utensils pertaining tc the kitchen. It was not thing oi beauty. The front yard was all right enough, but it belonged more to the public than to myself. There was nc fence between the house and the street, and l would as soon have thought of sitting down on the side walk as lounging about on the bit ot grass which was Tn front of my resi- dence. An Englishman, however keeps his yards for his own use. Ht believes, if he pays rent and taxes foi a plot of ground, that that plot o' ground is his for the time being; con sequently he puts a high wall around it, and is as secluded in his back yart as though he were in his own drawing room.
 My house is situated on a sort of stil bacliwater just out of the main curren 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 tht noise of the traffic. Out of this mair road there runs street in the form of semi-circle. It leaves the mair road for no particular reason, an( joins it again for no particular reason and in the center of this bow my house, with the front and bacl yards, is situated. It is a delight fully quiet spot for no vehicle comes into this peaceful road unless it hat business at one of the six or sever houses that are situated upon thi street, which can hardly bc called thoroughfare My back yard wall therefore, is a segment of a circle. is eight feet high, and is what is calle' an English park fence, which mean that it is made of upright split oal slabs overlapping each other, Thi kind of fence is said to cost as ,nuc and last as long as brick wall It