WE WILL GO TO WORK. 167 



Or it may be when I am away, and I, instead of 

 my plants, will be caught in it. Or it will beat 

 its musical tattoo on the roof after you are gone 

 to bed. What can you then do about it ? More 

 than likely it will come on Sunday, and even in 

 this lax age of Sabbath keeping, setting out a 

 strawberry-bed would hardly be esteemed an 

 act of " necessity or mercy." " He that regard- 

 eth the clouds shall not reap," nor get his straw- 

 berry-bed made in due season. The earlier you 

 can set your plants in summer or fall the better 

 your crop the following season, and I determined 

 to lose not a day in starting mine and assisting 

 Nature through the " dry-spell." At the same 

 time, if the rain comes, the provident gardener 

 will do his best to make the most of it. If he 

 intends setting out plants he will have them 

 ready, and the ground also, and then when the 

 western horizon darkens, and the mutter of dis- 

 tant thunder is heard, or when the east wind 



