MAY 87 



amateurs. His catalogue is one of the best simple, 

 concise, and clear, and giving all the information really 

 wanted, except perhaps by beginners. These, however, 

 are equally depressed and bewildered by every catalogue 

 and every gardening book. 



Nothing is so delightful as the first warm days, which 

 come sometimes at the beginning, sometimes later in May. 

 By this time all the March seeds are well up, the whole 

 garden teems with life, and all Nature seems full of joy. 

 The following little poem, which was in a May Pall 

 Mall two years ago, expresses so charmingly the joyous- 

 ness of spring that I copied it out : 



BABY SEED SONG 



Little brown seed, oh ! little brown brother, 



Are you awake in the dark ? 

 Here we lie cosily, close to each other ; 



Hark to the song of the lark 

 ' Waken ! ' the lark says, ' waken and dress you ; 



Put on your green coats and gay. 

 Blue sky will shine on you, sunshine caress you 



Waken 1 'tis morning 'tis May ! ' 



Little brown seed, oh ! little brown brother, 



What kind of flower will you be ? 

 I'll be a poppy all white, like my mother ; 



Do be a poppy, like me. 

 What ! you're a sunflower ? How I shall miss you 



When you're grown golden and high 1 

 But I shall send all the bees up to kiss you ; 



Little brown brother, good-bye. 



May 3rd. It seems almost useless to describe my 

 garden. Though I myself am so very fond of it, there 

 is no reason anyone else should understand why I love it ; 

 and when I read the description of the gardens that 

 other people love, I wonder I can bear with it at all. It 

 is surrounded, as I said before, with large forest trees ; 



