14 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



age, that of agriculture is chief among 

 them: " Venio nunc ad voluptates agrico- 

 larum, quibus ego incredibiliter detector: 

 quoB nee ulla impediuntur senectute, et mihi 

 ad sapientis vitam proxime videntur acce- 

 dere." (I am driven to Latin because New 

 York editors have exhausted the English^ 

 language in the praising of spring, and es- 

 pecially of the month of May.) 



Let us celebrate the soil. Most men toil 

 that they may own a piece of it ; they meas- 

 ure their success in life by their ability to 

 buy it. It is alike the passion of the par- 

 venu and the pride of the aristocrat. Broad 

 acres are a patent of nobility ', and no man 

 but feels more of a man in the world if he 

 have a bit of ground that he can call his 

 own. However small it is on the surface, 

 it is four thousand miles deep ; and that is 

 a very handsome property. And there is a 

 great pleasure in working in the soil, apart 

 from the ownership of it. The man who 

 has planted a garden feels that he has done 

 something for the good of the world. He 



