CHAPTER XV 



CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN 



" I see jthe garden thicket's shade 



Where all the summer long we played, 

 And gardens set and houses made, 

 Our early work and late." 



— Mary Howitt. 



OW we thank God for the noble 

 traits of our ancestors ; and our 

 hearts fill with gratitude for the 

 tenderness, the patience, the lov- 

 ing kindness of our parents ; I 

 have an infinite deal for which to 

 be sincerely grateful ; but for 

 nothing am I now more happy than that there were 

 given to me a flower-loving father and mother. To 

 that flower-loving father and mother I offer in ten- 

 derest memory equal gratitude for a childhood spent 

 in a garden. 



Winter as well as summer gave us many happy 

 garden hours. Sometimes a sudden thaw of heavy 

 snow and an equally quick frost formed a miniature 

 pond for sheltered skating at the lower end of the 

 garden. A frozen crust of snow (which our winters 

 nowadays so seldom afford) gave other joys. And 

 the delights of making a snow man, or a snow fort, 



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