IO BY WAY OF DEDICATION. 



oath, I should not like to say, that, either in the 

 wooing days of spring, or under the suns of the 

 summer solstice, you had been, either with hoe, 

 rake, or miniature spade, of the least use in the 

 garden ; but your suggestions have been invalu- 

 able, and, whenever used, have been paid for. 

 Your horticultural inquiries have been of a 

 nature to astonish the vegetable world, if it 

 listened, and were a constant inspiration to re- 

 search. 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 dis- 

 covery. What might have become of the gar- 

 den, 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 ; exer- 

 cising a sort of superintendence that elevated 



