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on Miles, presently, "it really isn't half bad; a bit too pastoral, perhaps; a trifle too idyllic; but still rather interesting. Fact is, I'd like to see the place when the flowers are out. Do you recollect that little picture you sent me two years ago, the one of the house and garden, with the purple clematis and crimson scrambler and a lot of other truck? Well, that reached me down at Peterson's Ranch, when there wasn't a blamed thing blooming except alkali and the only vegetation in sight was canned tomatoes. I made up my mind then that some day I'd see Maple Green when it looked like that picture—if it ever did! Most of the boys down there said it was a beautiful lie; they'd never seen anything like it—except 'Slim' Cooper; 'Slim' told me it reminded him of a picture he saw once that came with a Christ