LITTLE GARDENS 



ground in the usual row, divided from tlie other 

 spaces by a board fence six feet high, overlooked 

 by hundreds of windows in the row of which 

 your house is part, and in the other row, on the 

 next street. If there are breaks in the enclosing 

 wall of residences, that let your eye escape to- 

 ward fair or misty horizons, so much the better 

 for you, and so much the more likely that a spec- 

 ulator will fill them, presently, with taller and 

 more obstructive mansions. Your yard measures, 

 say, twenty-five feet by sixty feet, and in that 

 space we can not look for much variety of soil 

 or climate, although a yard of less than that di- 

 mension, that I cultivated for a while, had the 

 most various soil that I ever worked in. It was 

 a joy to the archaeologist, for it contained hoop- 

 skirts, false teeth, bird-cages, bones, rocks, tin- 

 ware, indeed, I hoped to reach mastodons, but 

 I came no nearer to that discovery than to up- 

 turn a pet turtle who had buried himself in a bed 

 of cannas, and had overlooked his customary 

 day for resurrection in the spring. 



And so long as variety in topography and 

 natural products is denied to your yard, I would 

 take the hint: conform to circumstances and try 



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