66 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



beetles and cutworms and moles and hens 

 and a host of marauding creatures above 

 ground and below, whose number and energy 

 amaze me. And each summer seems to add 

 to their variety and resourcefulness. Clearly, 

 the pleasures of a garden are not commensur 

 ate with its pains. And yet 



But there is one kind of joy which it gives 

 me at which even the Scoffer to wit, Jona 

 than does not scoff. It began with Aunt 

 Deborah s phlox. Then came Christabel s 

 larkspur. The next summer Mrs. Stone sent 

 me over some of her hardy little fall asters 

 &quot;artemishy,&quot; she called them. And Anne 

 Stafford sent on some hollyhock seeds culled 

 from Emerson s garden. And Great-Aunt 

 Sarah was dividing her peony roots, and said 

 I might take one. And Cousin Patty asked 

 me if I would n t like some of her mother s 

 old-fashioned pinks. And so it goes. 



And so it will go, I hope, to the end of the 

 long day. Each year my garden has in it 

 more of my friends, and as I look at it I 

 can adopt poor Ophelia s pretty speech in a 

 new meaning, and say, &quot;Larkspur that s 

 for remembrance; hollyhocks that s for 



