Gardener's Faith 



enchanters, and witches, and dragons, fly shrink- 

 ing away, because they cannot bear to see their 

 own images reflected in the shining ball. It gives 

 a picture of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the 

 earth. . . . It is really there, because it is very 

 pretty : for I had no notion of its magic when I 

 purchased it. 



In Russia, I am told, every garden has its 

 witch's eye, a globe three or four times larger than 

 mine ; and I am covetous. 



In summer nights the tea-house and the bridge 

 are hung with Japanese lanterns, and then the 

 spirit of youth comes down, and there is an end 

 of being grown up, and the most hardened Londoner 

 becomes a child ; a process which I hold to be the 

 very be-all and end-all of economy, for that state 

 of childhood in wisdom is the surest happiness, the 

 state in which, such as we are, we can look round 

 on life, and the world, and say that they are very 

 good, and know that amid all the beauty that is in 

 earth, and sky, and sea, there is nothing more 

 wonderful, and lovely, than human lives. 



That, dear Elisabeth, is where my economy 

 leads me : yours is sordid and leads you only to 

 ghoulish gloating over misery, which, except you 

 are happy, you can do nothing to combat. . . . 

 .... Jane has been to sleep. Sweet dreams 



185 



