CHAPTER XV 



CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN 



I see the garden thicket's shade 

 Where all the summer long we played, 

 And gardens set and houses made, 

 Our early work and late." 



MARY HOWITT. 



OW we thank God for the noble 

 traits of our ancestors ; and our 

 hearts fill with gratitude for the 

 tenderness, the patience, the lov- 

 ing kindness of our parents ; I 

 have an infinite deal for which to 

 be sincerely grateful ; but for 

 nothing am I now more happy than that there were 

 given to me a flower-loving father and mother. To 

 that flower-loving father and mother I offer in ten- 

 derest memory equal gratitude for a childhood spent 

 in a garden. 



Winter as well as summer gave us many happy 

 garden hours. Sometimes a sudden thaw of heavy 

 snow and an equally quick frost formed a miniature 

 pond for sheltered skating at the lower end of the 

 garden. A frozen crust of snow (which our winters 

 nowadays so seldom afford) gave other joys. And 

 the delights of making a snow man, or a snow fort, 

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