42 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



as Adam did, who abandoned his garden on ac- 

 count of the weeds. (How much my mind 

 seems to run upon Adam, as if there had been 

 only two really moral gardens, Adam's and 

 mine !) The only drawback to my rejoicing 

 over the finishing of the first hoeing is, that the 

 garden now wants hoeing the second time. I 

 suppose, if my garden were planted in a perfect 

 circle, and I started round it with a hoe, I should 

 never see an opportunity to rest. The fact is, 

 that gardening is the old fable of perpetual 

 labor ; and I, for one, can never forgive Adam 

 Sisyphus, or whoever it was, who let in the roots 

 of discord. I had pictured myself sitting at eve, 

 with my family, in the shade of twilight, contem- 

 plating a garden hoed. Alas ! it is a dream not 

 to be realized in this world. 



My mind has been turned to the subject of 

 fruit and shade trees in a garden. There are 

 those who say that trees shade the garden too 



