The Waning Year and its Suggestions 



The gardener's life can never be purely 

 contemplative. However fair his domain, 

 he must perforce keep his eyes open in it, 

 and his mind active. Vigilance must be 

 his attribute, or he will have cause for re- 

 gret. By watching he learns what to do, 

 and what to leave undone, the habits 

 of the plants he tends, their needs, their 

 uses, the different phases of their beauty. 

 Unconsciously he becomes educated, and 

 his mind lays up new stores of facts and 

 deductions for future use. 



The planter also grows in unselfish zeal Unselfish 

 as his plans increase in scope. He pre- character. " 

 pares for the future race, not alone for his 

 own joy. The trees he disposes for an- 

 other generation to sit under ; he plants 

 timber for the heir to cut ; he adds to his 

 broad acres that he may leave them to his 

 children. For himself the toil, for others 

 the fruit of his labors ; and thus, setting 

 aside his own recompense, he comes into 

 a larger manhood, into that fullness of life 

 which only belongs to him who has for- 

 gotten self, and lives for an end he cannot 

 hope to see. 



From all this training should result en- 

 27! 



