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George and Martha

James Marshall's "The Garden" has George hatching a plot.

George wants to help Martha grow a garden (she can't do it), so he goes to the florist and buys cut tulips. He jams the tulips into the ground. (This is right up there, in terms of lunacy, with George's wacky disguise, in "The Disguise.")

Martha, once again, matches George's strangeness: Spotting her friend in the middle of his plot, Martha does not get annoyed. She does not get impatient with George's dense nature. Instead, she is moved by George's generosity, and she declares her love: "I'd rather have *you* than all the gardens in the world."

Once again: Romance, subtext, suspense, and humor are packed into nine or ten lines.

And we have another title with a (possible) double meaning: We might think "The Garden" refers to a literal garden, but maybe it refers to the beautiful thing that Martha and George have cultivated together, i.e. the hippos' ongoing, "multicolor" friendship!

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