60 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



when preachers had to have something soft 

 to pound, so that they would not hurt their 

 fists. I suggested pocket-handkerchiefs, and 

 flannels for next winter. But Polly says 

 that will not do at all. You must have some 

 charitable object, something that appeals 

 to a vast sense of something ; something that 

 it will be right to get up lotteries and that 

 sort of thing for. I suggest a festival for 

 the benefit of my garden ; and this seems 

 feasible. In order to make everything pass 

 off pleasantly, invited guests will bring or 

 send their own strawberries and cream, which 

 I shall be happy to sell to them at a slight 

 advance. There are a great many improve- 

 ments which the garden needs ; among them 

 a sounding-board, so that the neighbors' 

 children can hear when I tell them to get a 

 little farther off from the currant-bushes. I 

 should also like a selection from the ten com- 

 mandments, in big letters, posted up con- 

 spicuously, and a few traps, that will detain, 

 but not maim, for the benefit of those who 

 cannot read. But what is most important 



