MY GARDEN ACCOUNTED FOR. 21 



ble to think of much else save some favorite 

 hobby. I have plotted it during long, monoton- 

 ous journeys, and perfected many details be- 

 fore spade or plough touched the heavy loam. 

 It has been almost my only recreation during a 

 country pastorate. 



But a deep abiding liking for any pursuit is 

 not the growth of a night. We do not wake up 

 as in the fairy tales and find ourselves or every- 

 thing around us changed, for it amounts to about 

 the same thing. However general may be the 

 taste for rural life, a most decided predisposition 

 and love of it, as of anything else, must either 

 be inherited or developed by peculiar circum- 

 stances. Just those circumstances existed in 

 my early home, and still exist, for the dear old 

 place is in the main unchanged. 



The same clear little brook murmurs musi- 

 cally across the lawn and skirts the garden, im- 

 peded here and there by water-cresses, and by 



