OUR CO U N T R Y HOME 



On either side of the wide roadway down its entire length the par- 

 sley grew, keeping its feathery green fresh until Thanksgiving. Of 

 course we knew we must plant everything in rows for convenience in 

 weeding and picking; but in the first arrangement of those rows our 

 inexperience was laughable. For instance, we had the tall lima 

 beans against the fence, under the shade of the neighboring trees, 

 they looked well there too, on paper; then came the trellis tomatoes 

 and high Brussels sprouts in gentle gradation down to the red cab- 

 bage and bush wax-beans and sprawling squashes. Think of the 

 lovely color scheme! It was certainly most unkind of our friends 

 the limas to turn yellow and refuse to prosper without more sun and 

 air, while the tomatoes, greedy gluttons, said, " If we can't have all 

 the light we won't play." Now we carefully put the limas in the 

 centre of one side of the garden and the tomatoes in the centre of the 

 other, where they balance beautifully and prosper finely, and there 

 is no quarreling. 



I suppose all vegetable gardens are much alike, but it is with 

 peculiar pride that we stand under the white lilacs at our own gar- 

 den gate and look down the broad grassy roadway, beyond the 

 parsley to the feathery carrots. We sniff the delicious fragrance 

 of the mint and sweet marjoram, the basil and the balm ; we ga/e 

 in deep admiration at the red-topped beets, grass-like onions, and 

 salsify; we look eagerly at the purple fruit of the egg plant and 

 the long green cucumbers tinder their heavy leaves; even the 



horse-radish and its cousin the turnip, the parsnip and the humble 



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