WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 163 



I confess that, after such an exhausting 

 campaign, I felt a great temptation to retire, 

 and call it a drawn engagement. But better 

 counsels prevailed. I determined that the 

 weeds should not sleep on the field of battle. 

 I routed them out, and levelled their works. 

 I am master of the situation. If I have 

 made a desert, I at least have peace ; but it 

 is not quite a desert. The strawberries, the 

 raspberries, the celery, the turnips, wave 

 green above the clean earth, with no enemy 

 in sight. In these golden October days no 

 work is more fascinating than this getting 

 ready for spring. The sun is no longer a 

 burning enemy, but a friend, illuminating 

 all the open space, and warming the mellow 

 soil. And the pruning and clearing-away 

 of rubbish, and the fertilizing, go on with 

 something of the hilarity of a wake, rather 

 than the despondency of other funerals. 

 When the wind begins to come out of the 

 northwest of set purpose, and to sweep the 

 ground with low and searching fierceness, 

 very different from the roystering, jolly 



