A Moonlight Garden 43 1 



But out of that shadowed background of leaf on 

 leaf shine hundreds of pure, pale stars of sweetness 

 and light, — a true flower of the night in fragrance, 

 beauty, and name, — the Moon-vine. It is a flower 

 of sentiment, full of suggestion. 



Did you ever see a ghost in a garden ? I do so 

 wish I could. If I had the placing of ghosts, I 

 would not make them mope round in stuffy old 

 bedrooms and garrets ; but would place one here in 

 this arbor in my Moonlight Garden. But if I did, I 

 have no doubt she would take up a hoe or a watering- 

 pot, and proceed to do some very unghostlike deed 

 — perhaps, grub up weeds. Longfellow had a 

 ghost in his garden (page 142). He must have 

 mourned when he found it was only a clothes-line 

 and a long night-gown. 



It was the favorite tale of a Swedish old lady who 

 lived to be ninety-six years old, of a discovery of 

 her vouth, in the year 1762, of strange flashes of 

 light which sparkled out of the flowers of the Nas- 

 turtium one sultry night. I suppose the average 

 young woman of the average education of the day 

 and her country might not have heeded or told ot 

 this, but she was the daughter of Linnaeus, the great 

 botanist, and had not the everyday education. 



Then great Goethe saw and wrote of similar flashes 

 of light around Oriental Poppies ; and soon other 

 folk saw them also — naturalists and everyday folk. 

 Usually yellow flowers were found to display this 

 light — Marigolds, orange Lilies, and Sunflowers. 

 Then the daughter of Linnaeus reported another 

 curious discovery ; she certainly turned her noctur- 



