6 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



I was very effusive in my praises; I realized what a valuable 

 lesson I had learned in agriculture as well as in the neat work- 

 manlike way a bed should be made. 



The instruction was not lost. The next day I gathered all 

 sorts of tools together, chose an axe from the unlabelled col- 

 lection, and trundled them out on the lawn to make a bed for 

 myself. Everything was stubborn from the insubordinate 

 turf to the hard soil. Every time I put in my spading fork it 

 struck against stones. It was very hard unaccustomed work, 

 and I soon sat down to ponder the easy grace of the gardener's 

 movements the day before. I worked a little more and then 

 sat again, reflecting on the wisdom of the negro, who said, 

 " De sun am so hot, de cotton am so dry, and dis yer nigger 

 am so tired, I don' got a call ta preach." 



At this moment Adam appeared, and everything went on 

 velvet wheels. Faint from fatigue, I was thoroughly dis- 

 couraged, and decided that if successful flower gardening in- 

 volved such labor, I should never attempt to play with that 

 graceful art. But my memory of fatigue is short-lived, and 

 before many days I began another bed, and again faltered; 

 and I noted that if I faltered at the critical moment when 

 Adam hove in sight, I had an able assistant at my command. 

 So by dint of a little work and the use of discretionary fatigue 

 I got a tidy bit of arable land under cultivation that summer, 

 and I learned to pluck at my tools quite handily. I had the 

 usual commonplace assortment of flowers, tall and dwarf 

 nasturtiums, the double and single African marigolds in lemon 

 and orange colors; but they made a respectable showing. 



Following the curve of the driveway, we had set out old- 

 fashioned semi-double red Lancaster roses in a bed perhaps 

 a hundred feet long, and I alternated the above-named an- 

 nuals with the roses, so that there might be a succession of 

 bloom after the roses had fallen. This also was successful, 



