WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 159 



was about, he said he was only eating some ; 

 and the operation seemed to be so natural and 

 simple, that I disliked to disturb him. And I 

 am not very sure that one has a right to the 

 whole of an abundant crop of fruit until he has 

 gathered it. At least, in a city garden, one 

 might as well conform his theory to the prac- 

 tice of the community. 



As for children (and it sometimes looks as if 

 the chief products of my garden were small boys 

 and hens), it is admitted that they are barba- 

 rians. There is no exception among them to 

 this condition of barbarism. This is not to say 

 that they are not attractive ; for they have the 

 virtues as well as the vices of a primitive people. 

 It is held by some naturalists that the child 

 is only a zoophyte, with a stomach, and feelers 

 radiating from it in search of something to fill 

 it. It is true that a child is always hungry all 

 over : but he is also curious all over ; and his 



