Evening star., 1923-10-16
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
NY GARDEN OF MEMORY. Kate
Douglas Wiggin. Houghton Milf
fin Company

hlu Company.
Young and gay and quite enchsnt-
ingly simple, the spirit that beckons
into this Garden of Memory" A
garden of flooding sunlight and cool
shadows. A place where friendly
birds-robin and wren-whistie and
sing and nest and brood. A place
where familiar fiowers-rose and hol-
lyhock and pink-set out in rainbow
blazonry the alchemy of sun and soil.
A most companionable garden.
\ u X
when 1 was a little girl"-some
one was saying. And at that magic
phrase everybody moved down into
a corner of the garden that was
clearly a strip Of New England soil.
Here. no matter how backward and
grudging other growths may be, that
of books. learning to read, the habit
of reading, provides full and un-
failing crop. Children are born
a.reading up that way. Not surpris-
ing, therefore, that as a very little
girl this one, talking, knew Dickens
almost by heart-hrst by hearing him
read. next, and better, by reading him
herself. Just about that time Dickens
made his memorable tour of the United
States. No one could have been more
excited over the event than this little
New England girl. And Providence
took hand in bringing the two to-
gether. Certainly nothing short of
such Intervention, or miracle itself,
could have placed the two on that
In frur r1 II
town. Il never knew how it hap
pened; / had no plan. no preparation,
no intention, certainly no provoca-
tion; but invisible ropes pulled me
out OF my seat, and. speeding up the
aisle, l planted myself breathiessly
and timorously down, an unbidden
guest. in the seat of honor. 1 had a
moment to recover my eQuanimity,
for Dickens was looking out of the
window, but he turned suddenly and
said with justifiable surprise: God
bless my soul, child. where did you
come from?" And the child went on
to tell him in literal response that
she came from Hollis, Me-, and that
she was going to Charlestown to visit
her uncle, and that her mother had
gone to his reading the night before,
and that, of course, she couldn't go.
IL was so Expensive" and that there
was a lady in Hollis who had never
heard Of Betsey Trotwood and had
read only two of his books. We'll.
upon my word! You do not mean to
she had She'd read every one of
them-but two. BLESS my soul!
These long thick books, and you such
a slip of a thing" And she said that,
of course, she had read them adding
that she did skip some of "the very
dull parts, once in a while: not the
short dull parts. but the long ones"
At that he laughed right out. Now
that is something / hear very little
about. / distinctly want to learn more
about those very long dull parts"
Then, maybe to amuse himself. maybe
to amuse the little girl, he took out
notebook and pencil and proceeded to
give her an examination on the books
where the dull parts and the dull
folks stood out He chuckled so much
while doing this that II could hardly
help believing myself extraordinarily
agreeable. so 1 continued dealing
these infant blows, under the deusion
that / was fiinging him bouquets" u"
Dickens asked her which of his
books she liked the best. David Cop
the best too. Did you want to so to
my reading very much, child?" And
the child came near to oVerfiowing
then, for the disappointment had been
deep and keen. When she could look
up she did and saw that the mans
eyes were fearful too. She told him
she wanted to go more than tongue
can tell" adding, do you cry. when
you read out loud. too?" And they
went over the places where they
were both likely to break down for
sorrow over some one or other. After
a rapturous time the man said. You
are not travelling alone?" oh! My
goodness Certainly not; l had a
And Dickens took the little girl back
to her forgotten mother, leaving a
picture that comes out here after all
these years with the freshness of yes
terday. upon it the charm of the orig
inal adventure itself.
X X X X
We could with deep pleasure have
stayed in this New England corner
any length of time. But this, it was
plain to see, was a big garden, so we
had to move along. Away over on
the other side of 1t was the Califor-
MIA strip in which the new kindergar-
ten scheme had but just taken root
Here the girl-a young lady by this
time and a teacher at that-wrought
toyously in a business where work
and play are as alike as twins. To
play games together, lot of five
year-old babies and the girl herself;
to tell stories back and forth; to ACT
these stories out on the spur of the
moment-ali this, by way of the days
work. bhpught that California plot W
to great beauty and to even greater
promise From telling stories and act
ing them, it is an easy step to writ
ing stories. And 1T is here that the
writing began. From here, too. the
garden reached out-sometlmeS In
long stretches Of familiar scenes.
sometimes in rich expanses of quiet
exotic charm. The girl had become
wSiter and a traveller to foreign
parts. Her stories-so natural, so gay
SO true so bedecked with humor and
friendEness-made instant and wide
appeal Moving out from home into
other lands and languages, they found
innumerable friends and opened for
their author the way to many high
adventures a in distinguished and per-
manent friendships.
* x X
A genius Aor friendship-that is the
KEY to the whole matter. Clearly
that is the touch of seeming wizardry
that converted the narrow New Eng
land corner hnto so wide world
space, marking, the passage of a girl
from a simple and obscure life ou!
into one of distinguished and affec-
tionate consideration. The quality OF
these friends. tN e depth of these
friendships-thesea made the igniting
spark whose respanse was her OWE
inexhaustibIe frieyAdliness with its
sequence of inspirsa ion and brilliant
achievement. Buried somewhere
among these pages ia sentence thai
ought to stand out i'll letters of sill
woman and of her caAeer. "I kindle
QUICKLY" And $50 she did "kindle" il
a flash, from this spark. and that one
from q thousand contacts all at once
And from each of thesFe countless
steady glow of the imbedE5s,d coal, bur