248 FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



gardens suggest to us many happy thoughts ; and, indeed, we 

 are throughout each season of the year, as Lowell says : 



" Compelled, as it were, to notice 

 All the beautiful changes and chances, 

 Thoughts which the landscape puts and glances ; 

 And to see how the face of common day 

 Is written all over with tender histories ; " 



the tender and wonderful histories of unfolding leaf, 

 bursting bud and falling seed, with their accompanying insect 

 and bird life. 



Phil Robinson, in one of the most entertaining of his 

 Nature-books, "In my Indian Garden," says: "A garden 

 everywhere is to the natural world beyond its walls very much 

 what a good review number is to the rest of literature. 

 Shrubs and flowers, indigenous or of distant derivation, attract 

 an equally miscellaneous congregation of birds and insects by 

 their fresher leaves, brighter blossoms, or juicier fruit, and 

 detain for a time the capricious and fastidious visitors." One 

 could quote many passages about gardens and what they seem 

 to teach : their invitations and their friendships, for unlike 

 other friends, these never grow old or desert us, but return 

 each year with their sweet faces unaltered. 



