92 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



tent, as gardening. By gardening, I do 

 not mean that insane desire to raise ve 

 getables which some have ; but the phil 

 osophical occupation of contact with the 

 earth, and companionship with gently 

 growing things and patient processes; 

 that exercise which soothes the spirit, 

 and develops the deltoid muscles. 



In half an hour I can hoe myself right 

 away from this world, as we commonly 

 see it, into a large place where there are 

 no obstacles. What an occupation it is for 

 thought ! The mind broods like a hen 

 on eggs. The trouble is, that you are 

 not thinking about any thing, but are 

 really vegetating like the plants around 

 you. I begin to know what the joy of 

 the grape-vine is in running up the trel 

 lis, which is similar to that of the squirrel 

 in running up a tree. We all have some 

 thing in our nature that requires contact 

 with the earth. In the solitude of gar- 



