WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 99 



den-labor, one gets into a sort of communion 

 with the vegetable life, which makes the old 

 mythology possible. For instance, I can believe 

 that the dryads are plenty this summer : my 

 garden is like an ash-heap. Almost all the 

 moisture it has had in weeks has been the sweat 

 of honest industry. 



The pleasure of gardening in these days, when 

 the thermometer is at ninety, is one that I fear 

 I shall not be able to make intelligible to my 

 readers, many of whom do not appreciate the 

 delight of soaking in the sunshine. I suppose 

 that the sun, going through a man, as it will on 

 such a day, takes out of him rheumatism, con- 

 sumption, and every other disease, except sud- 

 den death from sun-stroke. But, aside from 

 this, there is an odor from the evergreens, the 

 hedges, the various plants and vines, that is only 

 expressed and set afloat at a high temperature, 

 which is delicious ; and, hot as it may be, a little 



