HOME SURROUNDINGS. 153 



inclosed by a border of strips, one on each side of the broad 

 path leading down to the lakelet, and then the few roots 

 of Bermuda were .planted in spots about twenty inches 

 apart. They looked very ridiculous at first, " little dried- 

 up wisps of straw," somebody called them ; with the bare 

 sand dividing them from each other, it seemed hopeless to 

 expect ever to see those desolate-looking plats covered with 

 grass. But the '' little dried-up wisps," as soon as they re- 

 covered from their astonishment at being moved, put up 

 tiny green blades, and kept on trying to shake hands with 

 their neighbors, until, in less than a year, they succeeded 

 in embracing each other and uniting into one beautiful 

 brotherhood of emerald-green turf. Another year, and so 

 luxuriant was its growth, that the boundary strips were 

 removed and leave given it to roam whither it would ; so, 

 now, a fine large plat of deep green stretches out before 

 the house, where, only a few years ago, was nothing but 

 rough, weed-infested sand, hard to walk on, ofttimes pain- 

 fully hot to the feet and glaring to the eyes whenever the 

 sun was shining. The horses rejoice to graze on it when- 

 ever permitted, the cows and calves eagerly munch the 

 sweet hay it makes when cut, as it has to be several times 

 each summer when it has grown up to be eight or ten inches 

 high ; children love to roll on it, and visitors exclaim, while 

 wonderingly rubbing their feet back and forth on the short, 

 springy turf, " I've never seen any thing like this in Flor- 

 ida." But there is no reason why it should not be seen all 

 over the State, wherever there is a house occupied by peo- 

 ple who want to make a home in the land of their adoption. 

 In the particular case we have referred to the creeping 

 propensities of the one-time small plat of green turf are 

 so far from being regarded with terror that they are being 

 encouraged, and a few years hence, from present appear- 

 ances, from house to lakelet will be one beautiful lawn, 



