The Happy Garden 



and I venture to think that no better has been put 

 forward for the production of many better books. 

 After all, the whole affair grew out of the visit of 

 John Smith, who, in his automatic altruism, said : 



" Ah ! If only Jane were here 1 " 



Since all the Janes could not come to the 

 garden, the garden must be taken to them by 

 the medium of ink, pen, paper, printing-press, 

 photographs, book-binding, the publishers and 

 the booksellers' shops. 



In each stage of that elaborate process it is 

 obvious that much can trickle away, and, in the 

 end, it is doubtful whether all the Janes will be 

 in possession of what my garden really is. If they 

 can divine and grasp to a certain extent what it 

 is to me, then they will have something that is a 

 clear gain. ... If, on the other hand, they have 

 but a blurred impression of colour and a dim 

 memory of the wind in the pines, then also they 

 will have gained a little, for the lack of colour and 

 the sounds of Nature is what the dwellers in towns 

 do most suffer. 



It is difficult for a gardener to realise that there 

 can be any real satisfaction in reading about a 

 garden, but I am told that such a state of mind is 

 common among writers of books, who, when it is 

 finished, and they have exhausted their impulse, 



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