90 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



ELEVENTH WEEK. 



PEEHAPS, after all, it is not what you get 

 out of a garden, but what you put into it, 

 that is the most remunerative. What is 

 a. man ? A question frequently asked, and 

 never, so far as I know, satisfactorily an- 

 swered. He commonly spends his seventy 

 years, if so many are given him, in getting 

 ready to enjoy himself. How many hours, 

 how many minutes, does one get of that pure 

 content which is happiness ? I do not mean 

 laziness, which is always discontent ; but 

 that serene enjoyment, in which all the nat- 

 ural senses have easy play, and the unnatural 

 ones have a holiday. There is probably 

 nothing that has such a tranquillizing effect, 

 and leads into such content, as gardening. 

 By gardening I do not mean that insane 

 desire to raise vegetables which some have, 

 but the philosophical occupation of contact 



