WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 147 



be governed through their stomachs. I think 

 they can be controlled quite as well through 

 their curiosity ; that being the more craving 

 and imperious of the two. I have seen 

 children follow about a person who told 

 them stories, and interested them with his 

 charming talk, as greedily as if his pockets 

 had been full of bon-bons. 



Perhaps this fact has no practical rela- 

 tion to gardening ; but it occurs to me that, 

 if I should paper the outside of my high 

 board fence with the leaves of The Arabian 

 Nights, it would afford me a good deal of 

 protection, more, in fact, than spikes in 

 the top, which tear trousers and encourage 

 profanity, but do not save much fruit. A 

 spiked fence is a challenge to any boy of 

 spirit. But if the fence were papered, with 

 fairy-tales, would he not stop to read them 

 until it was too late for him to climb into 

 the garden ? I don't know. Human nature 

 is vicious. The boy might regard the pic- 

 ture of the garden of the Hesperides only 

 as an advertisement of what was over the 



