and I did not glance out of the window again until the operation was completed. And then I was bewildered. Surely this was not my poppy field. No — and yes, for there were the tall Pines clustering austerely together on one side, the magnolia tree burdened with bloom, and the Japanese quinces splashing the driveway hedge with blood. Yes, it was the field, but no wave of poppy-flame spilled down it, nor did the great golden fellows nod in the wheat beneath my window. I rushed into a jacket and out of the house. In the far distance were disappearing two huge balls of color, orange and yellow, for all the world like perambulating poppies of cyclopean breed.
"Johnny," said I to the nine-year-old son of my sister, "Johnny, whenever little girls come into, our field to pick poppies, you must go down to them," and in a very quiet and gentlemanly manner, tell them it is not allowed."
Warm days came, and the sun drew another blaze from the free-bosomed earth. Whereupon a neighbor's little girl, at the behest of her mother, duly craved and received permission from Bess to gather a few poppies for decorative purposes. But
