THE GARDENER'S DREAM. 13 



truthful, " fresh as English air could make it," and 

 bright with the afterglow of sixty summers. He was 

 tall, erect, and active, and though Time's snow lay on 

 his broad brow, his winter days were those of a merry 

 Christmas, when the air is pure and bracing, and the 

 heart full of love and hope. He took a few prelimi- 

 nary puffs to test the quality of my tobacco, and then 

 addressed me thus : 



" You probably possess among your paternal 

 pictures the portrait of a gentleman, looking for his 

 spectacles, with the object of his search on the top of 

 his forehead ; at all events, you are his true kinsman, 

 and the family likeness is very interesting. Permit 

 me to suggest an addition to the gallery yourself 

 with a brace of greyhounds, the trio gazing, heads up, 

 over distant fields, while a hare squats close to your 

 feet. You should read the story, one of the most 

 charming ever told, of the French gentleman who 

 came home one day in a melancholy, discontented 

 mood, envying his rich neighbour, whom he had just 

 left, starting for a tour in an elegant equipage, with 

 courier and valet, and every luxury, and complaining 

 bitterly of his own scanty means, which kept him a 

 wretched prisoner at home, like a donkey tethered on 

 a common. In this unmanly and unthankful temper, 

 his eye happened to turn towards the western heavens, 

 and there he saw that wondrous spectacle of beauty, 

 the sun going down in glory. Awed by that sublime 

 splendour, the dark spirit of evil fled, as from Saul, 

 when David took a harp and played with his hand ; 

 and gratitude and sweet content returned with the 

 thought that not in the whole world could traveller 



