10 BY WAY OF DEDICATION. 



inspiration to research. There was almost 

 nothing that you did not wish to know ; and 

 this, added to what I wished to know, made 

 a boundless field for discovery. What might 

 have become of the garden, if your advice 

 had been followed, a good Providence only 

 knows ; but I never worked there without a 

 consciousness that you might at any moment 

 come down the walk, under the grape-arbor, 

 bestowing glances of approval, that were 

 none the worse for not being critical ; exer- 

 cising a sort of superintendence that ele- 

 vated gardening into a fine art ; expressing 

 a wonder that was as complimentary to me 

 as it was to Nature ; bringing an atmosphere 

 which made the garden a region of romance, 

 the soil of which was set apart for fruits 

 native to climes unseen. It was this bright 

 presence that filled the garden, as it did the 

 summer, with light, and now leaves upon it 

 that tender play of color and bloom which is 

 called among the Alps the after-glow. 



C. D. W. 



NOOK FARM, HARTFORD, October, 1870. 



