Xll BY WAY OF DEDICATION. 



if it listened, and were a constant inspiration 

 to research. There was almost nothing that 

 you did not wish to know ; and this, added to 

 what I wished to know, made a boundless 

 field for discovery. What might have be 

 come of the garden if your advice had been 

 followed, a good Providence only knows ; but 

 I never worked there without a consciousness 

 that you might at any moment come down 

 the walk, under the grape-arbor, bestowing 

 glances of approval, that were none the 

 worse for not being critical ; exercising a 

 sort of superintendence that elevated gar 

 dening into a fine art ; expressing a wonder 

 that was as complimentary to me as it was to 

 Nature ; bringing an atmosphere which made 

 the garden a region of romance, the soil of 

 which was set apart for fruits native to climes 

 unseen. It was this bright presence that 

 filled the garden, as it did the summer, with 

 light, and now leaves upon it that tender 

 play of color and bloom which is called 

 among the Alps the afterglow. c. r&amp;gt;. w. 



NOOK FARM, HARTFORD, October, 1870. 



