SOME PRACTICAL HINTS 



attendance is an effectual clipper of the 

 wings of fancy, and ties one down monoto- 

 nously to hotbeds, and borders, and con- 

 ventional ways of horticulture. One 

 must have a strong character indeed to 

 run counter to his respectful disapproval ! 

 Equally disheartening is the cold and 

 sceptical gaze of unsympathetic relations or 

 friends, in whose eyes one is merely an ec- 

 centric person given over to wearing clothes 

 of a strange and impossible kind, and with 

 an inexplicable taste for menial labour. 

 When I encounter this sort of an attitude 

 I drop the garden at once, clothe myself 

 in the habiliments of so-called civilized 

 life, which preclude effectually my wander- 

 ing far away from the piazza, and bring 

 forth my fancy work. For, like "Eliza- 

 beth," I do not care to introduce my 

 precious garden to the unrecognizing eyes 

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