WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 163 



pears shall be required of you by a boy ! Along 

 comes an irresponsible urchin, who has not been 

 growing much longer than the tree, with not 

 twenty-five cents' worth of clothing on him, 

 and in five minutes takes off every pear, and 

 retires into safe obscurity. In five minutes 

 the remorseless boy has undone your work of 

 years, and with the easy nonchalance^ I doubt 

 not, of any agent of fate, in whose path nothing 

 is sacred or safe. 



And it is not of much consequence. The boy 

 goes on his way, to Congress, or to State 

 Prison : in either place he will be accused of 

 stealing, perhaps wrongfully. You learn, in 

 time, that it is better to have had pears and 

 lost them than not to have had pears at all. 

 You come to know that the least (and rarest) 

 part of the pleasure of raising fruit is the vulgar 

 eating it. You recall your delight in conversing 

 with the nurseryman, and looking at his illus- 



