MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 169 



need ; to spend only what will bring us 

 peace, regardless of what is going on 

 over the fence. We are half ruined by 

 conformity ; but we should be wholly 

 ruined without it : and I .presume I shall 

 make a garden next year that will be as 

 popular as possible. 



And this brings me to what I see may 

 be a crisis in life. I begin to feel the 

 temptation of experiment. Agriculture, 

 horticulture, floriculture, - these are vast 

 fields, into which one may wander away, 

 and neve r be seen more. It seemed to 

 me a very simple thing, this gardening ; 

 but it opens up astonishingly. It is 

 like the infinite possibilities in worsted- 

 work. Polly sometimes says to me, &quot; I 

 wish you would call at Bobbin s, and 

 match that skein of worsted for me when 

 you are in town.&quot; Time was I used to 

 accept such a commission with alacrity 

 and self-confidence. I went to Bobbin s, 



