FIFTEENTH WEEK. 



T is said that absence conquers all things, 

 love included ; but it has a contrary 

 effect on a garden. I was absent for 

 two or three weeks. I left my garden a para- 

 dise, as paradises go in this protoplastic world ; 

 and when I returned the trail of the serpent 

 was over it all, so to speak. (This is in addition 

 to the actual snakes in it, which are large enough 

 to strangle children of average size.) I asked 

 Polly if she had seen to the garden while I was 

 away, and she said she had. I found that all 

 the melons had been seen to, and the early 

 grapes and pears. The green worm had also 

 seen to about half the celery ; and a large flock 



