2IO 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



gardeners. The Principal Lover of 

 Nature spent much of His most sacred 

 time in a garden, and whenever that 

 Great Book wishes to enforce an im- 

 portant lesson, it portrays its actors near 

 to some form of wild nature or intensely 

 interested in animal or plant life, with 

 especial reference to plant life that is 



natural world. He believes practically 

 in a garden, and he has successfully con- 

 ducted in the church grounds a veritable 

 Little Eden for the boys and the girls. 

 His example is worth imitating. It will 

 be imitated. The time is coming when 

 every church with children in the parish 

 will have a garden. 



THE MANAGER AND THE DELVERS OF "LITTLE EDEN." 

 The photograph shows a liberal harvest of "good things" in vegetables and happiness. 



under the care of man — in other words, 

 a garden. 



In view of these self-evident facts, 

 looked at as they are and not through 

 the heedlessness of custom, isn't it as- 

 tounding that the majority of churches 

 take no interest in gardens? 



Yet I know one rector to whom this 

 criticism would not apply, and who is 

 setting an example in the study and ap- 

 preciation of "God's Works" that may 

 well be imitated by others. I refer to 

 the Reverend Charles Morris Addison, 

 rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, 

 of Stamford, Connecticut. As a boy he 

 met the great-hearted, thoughtful, re- 

 ligious, studious and prayerful Louis 

 Agassiz. He has been an active worker 

 in several AA chapters. He interests 

 his boys and girls in God's Works as 

 well as in God's Words. His sermons 

 are permeated with the beauty, interest 

 and instruction to be derived from the 



I recently visited this little Eden 

 and found the boys and the girls 

 as happy as they could possibly be, and 

 rejoicing in the greatest of all joys, the 

 joy of doing. I took the accompanying 

 photographs. Upon request the mana- 

 ger of the garden furnished me with the 

 following account : 



The farm garden of St. John's Boys' 

 Chili was started on the 25th of May, 

 1907, and was continued for four 

 months. During that first season we 

 had sixteen members, and the interest 

 and enthusiasm shown were most en- 

 couraging. Each member had a plot of 



ground ten feet wide 



l>v 



twelve in 



length, on which he raised not less than 

 three and one-half dollars' worth of veg- 

 etables. In 1908 we hope for an in- 

 crease in our produce, as tomato plants 

 have been added to our list, the vege- 

 tables now cultivated being wax beans, 

 string beans, lettuce, radishes, turnips. 



