DETAILS AND DOLLARS MY GARDEN. ?$ 



for grubbing in the earth, for watching things 

 grow. I have had many years of city life, and 

 far more than my share of city amusements as 

 my connection with newspapers has supplied me 

 with tickets to all places of entertainment. I 

 said to myself : "This is the life for me ; I will 

 raise strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and 

 other pleasant things, and if I do not grow rich 

 I shall at least have strength and health where- 

 with to enjoy the sunlight and the country 

 air." 



For months this idea haunted me without 

 taking practical shape. It is no easy matter for 

 a man absorbed in professional life, especially 

 newspaper life, to get out of it, and without 

 capital as I was, the notion had something un- 

 pleasant about it. To cut loose from an assured 

 income was dangerous. The strawberries might 

 not grow, the drought might kill my blackber- 

 ries, there might be a glut in the market when 

 I came to sell, even if I had any thing to sell. 

 I might get tired of solitude, and might yearn 

 for the nervous activity of the city again. I 

 might come to think that a good opera was 

 worth a million strawberry plants, and the end 

 might be as most of my friends predicted^ 



