The Happy Garden 



For a long time it was only a cottage in the country, 

 a sort of half-and-half position which no house 

 should be called on to endure. Live in the country 

 and have a place in town, by all means ; but to 

 reverse the process is unnatural. The garden 

 suffered for it, and so did I. 



My dear Jane, we are not yet inside the gate. 

 The two dogs you have seen \ somewhere about the 

 place are a man, a cat, a tortoise, a gardener, a 

 gardener's wife, a gardener's baby, six green lizards, 

 gold-fish, toads and tadpoles, servants, and part of 

 a boy. All wonderful, of course, and all living in 

 the life of the garden. 



There is another gate just along the road, but 

 nobody ever uses it. 



Come in and have some tea ; talk, and let me 

 talk, and you shall see. 



Here, where the brick court is, until a year ago, 

 was nothing but the old gentleman's laurels, forcing 

 the acacias, and the almond tree, and the may 

 trees, up to an unnatural height. Nobody could 

 ever find the front door. People used to go to the 

 kitchen, and the scullery, and the drawing-room 

 window, blundering from shyness to confusion, 

 until we rescued them, and then, often, they were 

 so bewildered that they were unhappy, and thought 

 of nothing but the time when they could escape. 



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