In the garden with Crucket Hillary.

• Author: Clinton, Kate
• Position: UNPLUGGED - Hillary Rodham Clinton - Column

Late one afternoon, on the Saturday between the end of the Republican convention and the start of the Democratic convention, I was out in the garden sadly cutting down the last stalks of day lilies and deadheading Shasta daisies. The day had been dry, hot, and still, but thick clouds and a light breeze promised some cooling shadows and perhaps a needed shower.

It is the third year of the garden and in its junior year the plants are established, lush, and tall. People walking by stop and tell me they have the same yellow coneflower in their gardens at home, but theirs are nowhere near as tall. Sometimes, I hypothesize with them that perhaps my garden sits on a nuclear outflow pipe.

The foliage almost hides the blue Hillary Clinton campaign sign that we put up in the beginning of the summer. We poked the banner s wire posts into the cracks of our crumbling front brick stoop.

Our front sidewalk becomes a conveyor belt of pedestrian traffic in July and August. Since we put the sign up, I have been able to conduct a study of Hillary support. It is a random anecdotal sample, not the artificial intelligence that is polling.

Gay men shout "Hillary!" as they slalom their bikes through stalled traffic on the way to the beach. Russian tourists stop and take pictures. It could be surveillance. Several times I've seen women admire the garden, notice the Hillary sign, then look back to their men, as if dreading their response. When their men start shaking their heads and mumbling, the women seem to take them by the arm to steady them and move along.

As I carried a bundle of cuttings out the front gate, I noticed a small, white piece of paper stuck to the upper right corner of the sign. The six-by-two-inch paper was attached to the sign with three small bits of masking tape. On the paper, in all caps, someone had scratched with a...