8 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



according to the weather and the prog 

 ress of the weeds, which may drive me 

 from one corner of the garden to the 

 other. 



The principal value of a private gar 

 den is not understood. It is not to give 

 the possessor vegetables and fruit (that 

 can be better and cheaper done by the 

 market-gardeners), but to teach him pa 

 tience and philosophy, and the higher vir 

 tues, hope deferred, and expectations 

 blighted, leading directly to resignation, 

 and sometimes to -alienation. The gar 

 den thus becomes a moral agent, a test 

 of character, as it was in the beginning. 

 I shall keep this central truth in mind 

 in these articles. I mean to have a 

 moral garden, if it is not a productive 

 one, one that shall teach, my 

 brothers ! my sisters ! the great les- 

 Bons of life. 



The first pleasant thing about a gar- 



