40 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



roasted, for the sake of the increased vigor 

 of a few vegetables ? The thing is perfectly 

 absurd. If I were rich, I think I would 

 have my garden covered with an awning, so 

 that it would be comfortable to work in it. 

 It might roll up and be removable, as the 

 great awning of the Roman Coliseum was, 

 not like the Boston one, which went off 

 in a high wind. Another very good way to 

 do, and probably not so expensive as the 

 awning, would be to have four persons of 

 foreign birth carry a sort of canopy over you 

 as you hoed. And there might be a person 

 at each end of the row with some cool and 

 refreshing drink. Agriculture is still in a 

 very barbarous stage. I hope to live yet 

 to see the day when I can do my gardening, 

 as tragedy is done, to slow and soothing mu- 

 sic, and attended by some of the comforts I 

 have named. These things come so forcibly 

 into my mind sometimes as I work that per- 

 haps, when a wandering breeze lifts my straw 

 hat, or a bird lights on a near currant-bush, 

 and shakes out a full-throated summer song, 



