222 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



and which I must once more ask leave to commend. He 

 must have an enthusiastic love of the Rose, not the tepid 

 attachm.ent which drawls its faint encomium, " She's a 

 nicish girl, and a fellow might do worse," but the true 

 devotion, which sighs from its very soul, " I must, I will 

 win thee, my queen, my queen ! " He must have a good 

 position, a home meet for his bride. He must have for his 

 Roses a free circulation of air, a healthful, breezy situation, 

 with a surrounding fence, not too high, not too near, which 

 shall break the force of boisterous winds, temper their bit- 

 terness ere they enter the fold, and give sJiclter but not 

 shade to his Roses. He must have a good garden-soil, well 

 drained, well dug, well dunged. And having these indis- 

 pensable adjuncts, he may order his Show-Roses. 



" Thanks, dear professor," here exclaims the enraptured 

 pupil (I am mocking now with a savage satisfaction those 

 dreadful scientific dialogues which vexed our little hearts in 

 childhood); "your instructions are indeed precious — far 

 more so than the richest jam, than ponies, than cricket, or 

 than hide-and-seek ; but may we interrupt you for a mo- 

 ment to ask, What is your definition of a Show-Rose } " 



" Most gladly, my dear young friends," replies the kind 

 professor (anxiously wishing his dear young friends in bed, 



