WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 123 



FIFTEENTH WEEK. 



IT is said that absence conquers all things, 

 love included ; but it has a contrary effect 

 on a garden. I was absent for two or three 

 weeks. I left my garden a paradise, as par- 

 adises go in this protoplastic world; and 

 when I returned the trail of the serpent was 

 over it all, so to speak. (This is in addition 

 to the actual snakes in it, which are large 

 enough to strangle children of average size.) 

 I asked Polly if she had seen to the garden 

 while I was away, and she said she had. I 

 found that all the melons had been seen to, 

 and the early grapes and pears. The green 

 worm had also seen to about half the cel- 

 ery ; and a large flock of apparently per- 

 fectly domesticated chickens were roaming 

 over the ground, gossiping in the hot Sep- 

 tember sun and picking up any odd trifle 

 that might be left. On the whole, the gar- 



