OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 



Hail, thou everblessed morn ! 

 Hail, Redemptions happy dawn ! 

 Sing, through all Jerusalem, 

 Christ is born in Bethlehem I 



Lo, within a manger lies 

 He Who built the starry skies ; 

 He, Who throned in heights sublime 

 Sits amid the Cherubim ! 



All the household had gathered there to give her this 

 pleasure and make her feel that she was not altogether shut 

 out from the Christmas privileges! Wrapped in their 

 thick cloaks, with Juvenal swinging a lantern, they stood 

 in a long row and chanted to her. It was one of those 

 small sweetnesses in life that leave a lasting memory. 



There is a picture in a garden paper of Japanese single 

 Asters growing wild in grass : the seeds had been mixed 

 by mistake, but the result, according to the illustration, 

 was singularly attractive. When we saw it we said that 

 the experiment should be made at Villino Loki l^Many 

 indeed are the experiments, many the improvements to be 

 made within our small acres. 



But what a difference lies between conception and execution. 

 Of late <for an instance) we had revolved round the agree- 

 able thought of a Pool and a wet place generally, for Iris 

 Kaempheri, Spiraea and other moisture-loving darlings. We 

 had indeed intended something altogether choice in the 

 shape of a large sunken basin with a piping faun on the 

 edge of it. Oh, something quite delightful. . . But an incon- 

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