GARDENING B Y MYSELF. 6/ 



their growth, and chilled them past recov- 

 ery ; or some unseen host of insect marau- 

 ders may have quartered on them for a 

 night, choosing your flower bed before all 

 the world. Such things must happen now 

 and then, and the best regulated families 

 suffer. 



It is good to reserve a little seed of va- 

 rious kinds — especially the smaller and 

 more delicate — for a second planting in 

 such emergencies: sometimes, too, one can 

 fill the vacant places with the thinnings of 

 another patch. Yet do not be in a hurry to 

 conclude that the first planting has failed ; 

 because, as I said, some seeds must have 

 time ; and those wiry little things that 

 hurry up as if they had slept all winter 

 with one eye open, may mislead you con- 

 cerning the rest. But however things go, 

 take Mr. Vick's advice, and count the seeds 

 that grow rather than those that fail, — let- 

 ting no lament for what you have not, spoil 

 the sweetness of what you have. 



We had an old gardener once who had a 



