BOOK OF THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 19 



for it is by no means the amiable and guileless child of 

 the poets, breathing perfumed south wind and followed 

 by young lambs through meadows knee deep in grass 

 and flowers. 



In the course of fifteen years I have seen four May-days 

 when there was enough grass to blow in the wind and 

 frost had wholly left for the season ; to balance this there 

 have been two brief snow squalls, three deluges that 

 washed even big beans out of ground, and a scorching 

 drought that reduced the brooks, unsheltered by 

 leafage, to August shallowness. But to-day has been 

 entirely lovable and full of the promise that after all 

 makes May the garden month of the year, the time of 

 perfect faith, hope, and charity when we may believe 

 all things! 



This morning I took a stroll in the woods, partly to 

 please the dogs, for though they always run free, they 

 smile and wag furiously when they see the symptoms 

 that tell that I am going beyond the garden. What a 

 difference there is between the north and south side of 

 things ! On the south slope the hepaticas have gone and 

 the columbines show a trace of red blood, while on the 

 north, one is in perfection and the other only as yet 

 making leaves. This is a point to be remembered in the 

 garden, by which the season of blooming can be length- 



