176 Make-Believe

to change it back to its old beauty by dint
of long labour. All the time that he had
been in foreign parts, you see, he had been
thinking of the garden that he left. Time
had utterly changed it, and he could not
care for it any longer.

“So at last, when the morning was still
young, he shouldered his knapsack once
more and went away from the garden
leaving the gate still open. I am told
that after he had gone the villagers came
and entered the garden. They trimmed
and pruned the shrubs, and in the end it
became a very nice garden. But it was
never what it had been in his time.”

Doris had long had a dim suspicion of
allegory, to which she gave characteris-

tically naive expression: “Is there a
moral?”

“JT don’t think so, Doris, said the Visi-
tor, “ only ... I am going away in a
day or two.”

“T suppose you must,” answered the

child, sadly. ‘Well, if you think this