20 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



The principal value of a private garden is 

 not understood. It is not to give the posses- 

 sor vegetables and fruit (that can be better 

 and cheaper done by the market-gardeners), 

 but to teach him patience and philosophy, 

 and the higher virtues, hope deferred, and 

 expectations blighted, leading directly to res- 

 ignation, and sometimes to alienation. The 

 garden thus becomes a moral agent, a test 

 of character, as it was in the beginning. I 

 shall keep this central truth in mind in these 

 articles. I mean to have a moral garden, 

 if it is not a productive one, one that 

 shall teach, O my brothers ! O my sisters ! 

 . the great lessons of life. 



The first pleasant thing about a garden in 

 this latitude is that you never know when 

 to set it going. If you want anything to 

 come to maturity early, you must start it in 

 a hot-house. If you put it out early, the 

 chances are all in favor of getting it nipped 

 with frost ; for the thermometer will be 90 

 one day, and go below 32 the night of the 

 day following. And, if you do not set out 



