WILL YOU WALK INTO MY GARDEN? l^ 



fore my reader is repelled by this condition, let 

 him ask his physician what he thinks of a good 

 perspiration over the fresh-turned earth. I 

 think that the medical gentleman would be ob- 

 liged to admit that, like Othello, his occupation 

 would be gone if this corrective and tonic were 

 generally indulged in. 



I hope the few preceding paragraphs have 

 not proved a long and tiresome way of saying 

 to the reader " Once upon a time," the brief 

 and classic preface of so many stories. I shall 

 now proceed to tell mine, to faithfully portray 

 my garden as it exists and has existed. I shall 

 carry the reader forward with the season. He 

 shall see the seed planted, and watch it come 

 up and grow into bulky vegetables. My straw- 

 berries shall ripen under his eyes, and my vines 

 hang their clusters in aggravating proximity to 

 his nose. And then he shall go to market \rith 



them and count the change and he meantime 

 2 



