The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-03-24
WHlMS OF THE IDLER
The Queen Bee and Her Dear Mans Garden.
skeleton clutch 10 their wonted rest

skeleton clutch to their wonted rest
ing places.
All these things were swept in a
man armed with the carving knife.
Poetry was in her soul, despite the to-
nato cans which CLEANED where erst
grew the vermilion nasturtiuns. Spring.
too, was singing in her ears notwtth-
standing the dismantled soap-box that
lay wrecked whore formerly blossom
ed the redolent battalions OF Sweet Will
liams. A hundred perfumes, in imagi-
nation, We're coming to her kalsomin-
ed nose from the little tangle where
only few months ago Wantoned tho,
sweet peas, the tea roses, the lilac
and the old-time pinks. and where moro
recently the cook had thrown one of,
her discarded, lopsided shoes.
So the Commander-in-Chief5 ducked un-
der the clothes-llnes, and furnishing her
blade OF pure Damascus steel, prepared
to do business with the earth. Little
that was green presented itself to her
searching gaze. Nearly all that met
her vision was sombre and crumpllng
and blighted, and there was no super
fluffy Of fragrance.
| "Everythipg as dead as n door nail.
sighed the good woman, land so dreary-
looking that It takes oil the faith I've
got to believe in the floral resurrection.
But lust then, casting her rowing eye
to the base of tho fence below. tho place
where nuttered my trusty polka-dot no
siery on the clothes-line, she espleas
little patch OF delicate, tender emerald.
! 1t was my; mint-bed, just preparing =
| open up the season!
! Great was the delight Of the Comman-
! er-in-Chief when she first saw this evil
dence OF spring. for she suspected ,ot
what was the hardy plant Wh'ch tnus
venturcd to brave belated SHOWS anu
treacherous frosts.
.Oh you plucky little dear, passio'l-
atelv exclaimed the heayily-arineu uan,e
I White like n duck on Junepus' sne
.s,;onnod down on an almost impercepti'
Me snrIe OF green. ''How hope the SUI
MI, make YOU grow big and strong, anc
Main Won to spread until you carpet this
z whole yard. ~, ,,,r+ onf
4 snorted. ,,aa saving tho
carving-knife with q succession OF VIZ
a. which convinced me. peep
INC chucklingly through the skitcnel
. .uE that had been five yards
nearer, my scalp would nave peer
detached from my dome or tnousn
quicker than IT takes TO te'l " t''4
! episode. ~. ,,.,, - maxi
any woman hopping mad" heard ne =,
exc1aim. ti'Drat that man and ~
tricks, anyhow! Here Two spent sixty 81
nine cents writing to seed stores tina
advertise in the backs OF magazines
and digging and scratching IN thi
8 ward forTmnoths. and now there ain,
q, leaf to show for 1t except this mast
stun. I'm that aggravated n coul
! And as she ducked back and fort
! under the clothes-lines, she got SUI
!, madden and mndder. for closer ~
. spection revealed the fact that IN
: mint was coming UP In all direction
4 until it looked as II the whole var
I would be alive with y.
!, "Just like him." heard her So
a wrathfully, 'just like him! couidh
q go much as get him to dig thlmp!e
: full of dirt hero last summer, until =
: came in one day with a spring OF mn
. and asked to be allowed to plant J
Z He said he never expected TO rals
Z enough Ito uso In his toddles-in Iac
= Il didn't drink except when he had colds
= but thought 1t would smell so sWe'
:" ana countrylike when the wind bic
I. up It, And to think didn't have y
q gumption to understand his tricks and