Last week, I wrote about the beautiful window wall that a friend installed in my first house. It was a grid of two-foot-square panes, 14 feet wide and 8 feet tall, double glazed for warmth.

All that glass flooded the room in light. It also felt like living in a fish bowl until I could afford drapes.

Decorating such a huge expanse was a challenge. Buddy, my architect, kept grumbling, "Don't clutter it up!"

In the corner that opened to the kitchen, I put a large, round oak table that I found in a second-hand store for $8. When they redecorated the radio station where I worked, I bought four of the old rolling office chairs. They were still in good shape, cheap and upholstered in dusty rose. (Remember when dusty rose was as popular as sage green is today?)

The sectional sofa sat in the middle of the room, facing the window wall. The coffee table was a large flake of native bluestone, set on fat legs from a Victorian table.

I decided I needed some greenery and finally visualized a tree at one end of the window. I mentioned it to Buddy, who said, "Ah, a bonsai would be great."

I remembered seeing two Asian trees in front of a nursery a few weeks earlier. They had tortured trunks and branches with interesting arthritic swellings at their joints. That would be perfect, I thought.

BONSAI SURPRISE

The next week found me driving to that nursery, but the trees no longer flanked the doorway. I asked the proprietor about them, and he said they had been a special order and had been delivered.

Could he order one more? I asked. He assured me that was possible but cautioned that they were expensive. How much? sez I. $1,500 apiece, he replied.

My jaw dropped at the thought of paying that much for a tree. To break the silence, he offered, "I have some young Asian trees that you might be interested in."

I asked to see them, and he led me between rows of saplings to a slender, young Chinese maple. The tag indicated it was within my price range. How long would it take to grow as large as the ones I had admired? I asked.

"Oh, those trees were over 100 years old," he said.

The absurdity of a pauper like me even considering the purchase of an ancient tree with an astronomical price undid me. It started with a muffled giggle.

I remembered all of the unfortunate flora that swooned from thirst over the years and given up the ghost while under the care of my black thumb and guffawed out loud.