MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 59 



age state, in order to make war upon 

 the things of our planting ; and calls 

 in the fowls of the air, just as we think 

 the battle is won, to snatch away the 

 booty. When one gets almost weary of 

 the struggle, she is as fresh as at the 

 beginning, just, in fact, ready for the 

 fray. I, for my part, begin to appreci 

 ate the value of frost and snow ; for 

 they give the husbandman a little peace, 

 and enable him, for a season, to contem 

 plate his incessant foe subdued. I do 

 not wonder that the tropical people, 

 where Nature never goes to sleep, give 

 it up, and sit in lazy acquiescence. 



Here I have been working all the 

 season to make a piece of lawn. It had 

 to be graded and sowed and rolled ; and 

 I have been shaving it like a barber. 

 When it was soft, every thing had a ten 

 dency to go on to it, cows, and espe 

 cially wandering hackmen. Hackrnen 



