26 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



marigolds and stock, and established the most intimate rela- 

 tions. Both inside and outside my walls was a spirit of jovial 

 fellowship. But the most immoral thing in the garden was 

 a hop vine, perfectly incapable of self-support, ready to at- 

 tach itself to any object. I found it one day twining like a boa 

 constrictor around a tall grass stalk. Such shameful depend- 

 ence upon any frail support at hand will, ultimately and in- 

 evitably, lead hop vines, when they reach the human stage, to 

 look to their wives for maintenance. 



I fostered an unnecessary grief that first summer. I was 

 so happy in the plenitude of bloom, that I was ready to order 

 mourning in advance of the sad day when the frost should de- 

 stroy the beauty. Gentle melancholy darkened many an Au- 

 gust day with the anticipated sorrow. But Nature has a kind 

 way of alleviating many of our griefs. Before the frosts 

 came, almost all my annuals I had little else that summer 

 had run their race and wore a frowsy, jaded look, and I was 

 thankful when, at last, a sharp frost added the finishing 

 stroke, so that, with a clear conscience, I could tear up the 

 withered stalks and throw them over the wall to make a deeper 

 compost among the rocks outside. The need of removing 

 each plant as it faded had never occurred to me, for most of 

 the garden faculties of my mind were still dormant. 



