By this time the ground will be bare of snow and it will be soft. Ask some of the pupils to bring rakes, and have them gather up the rubbish. You can all play gypsies when you gather about the bonfire. This will be a favorable time to sow grass seed; for I have no doubt the school lot will need it. A lawn mixture of seed would be ideal, but I hardly expect you to pay for it. At this stage of your improvements, I scarcely expect that any of the patrons of your school would do so either. Later some of them may feel differently. Your pupils can at least follow the plan of those spoken of in Rochester--get chaff from a haymow. It will inevitably be a mixture of grass and weeds, but the latter can be pulled out after germinating. It is barely possible that some farmer will give you some clover and timothy, such as he uses in seeding his meadow; and this will be far better. Next, I should put out a hitching-post. When your school commissioner calls it will be appreciated. If that functionary does not publicly compliment your school for even such small improvements, I wish you would report such indifference to me, giving his full address, and I will request him to explain this forgetfulness. Good results in landscape-gardening depend on observing certain principles, the same as with our wardrobe. Many a clever girl will accomplish more in dress with twenty-five dollars than others can do with twice that amount. Among the first and most important efforts is to make a frame or setting for the house by planting around the borders of the place. Sometimes the location will make this inconvenient if not impossible, when, for instance, the building is placed near the street or crowded between other buildings. Even in such cases, however, it is well to keep the idea clearly in mind and to approach it as nearly as circumstances will permit. An illustration of a normal location to which this principle can be applied is shown in Fig. 294. The trees and the higher shrubs are planted first and on the extreme borders of the lot, with shorter shrubs, roses, and the like in front of them. This frame can be given a finish by planting flowers or very low things next the grass. If the area be ample, let the edges be irregular (Fig. 294); but if very limited, straight lines become necessary. [Illustration: _Fig. 294. Showing how the borders may be planted._]