SPRING. 47 



instantaneously does the desire start iii3 just to put this 

 bit of the border in order, to rake away the leaves or 

 smooth the clods round this clump, and how pleasant the 

 feeling is of breaking up the soil, crumbly and sweetened 

 by the winter's frost, pausing in the work now and then 

 lest you drive the bee out of the crocus-flower, and gently 

 removing out of the reach of the rake the half torpid 

 specimens of Carahus hortensis that are sure to be disin- 

 terred on the first spring days of gardening. Woe betide 

 them if the bright eye of the robin spy them out ere they 

 re-bury themselves for " a little more sleep and a little more 

 slumber." The first day's work in the garden brings the 

 redbreast from the window-sill to the borders in a very 

 short time, and his presence adds another pleasure to the 

 season and its work. Spring flowers are easy of culture, 

 and no garden should be without a profusion of them : as 

 most of them are low growing, they may have the front row 

 of the borders and the edges of the beds dedicated to them, 

 for few of these favourites like to be shifted. I*^ot many 

 sights are gayer and more pleasing than a small garden in 

 spring with bunches of snowdrops, crocuses, yellow white 

 and blue hepaticas, pink and blue dwarf daffodils, grape- 

 hyacinth, and other species of Scilla, and, a little later on 

 in the season, the dog-tooth violet. As all these, with the 

 exception of the hepatica, die down to the root in summer, 

 their places will require to be filled up by low growing- 

 annuals sown round them; but the bulbs should be left 

 undisturbed, for it is one of the chief pleasures of spring- 

 to watch for the re-appearance of our old friends, to observe 



