6 EVERT WOMAN HER OWN FLOWER GARDENER. 



This hardly seems a fair criticism upon our homes. Having been 

 an enthusiastic lover of flowers from childhood, and having cultivated 

 them ever since the use of the hands was learned, I cannot recognize 

 its truth ; have never known of many such houses, as he describes. Yet 

 many American writers will declare that slender porticos, fanciful 

 verandas, sculptured gables, and deep bay windows are often seen in 

 this country, without a vestige of a flower or climbing vine about them ; 

 while in England, the poorest laborer's cot is a bower of greenery ; and 

 his little plat of flowers, often vies with that of his employer. 



It is not always wealth or art that gives to English homes their 

 beauty and picturesqueness, but it is the attention of their inmates, to 

 the cultivation of the "Green things of the earth" 



It is not the latticed casement nor the high gable that attracts the 

 notice of the traveler, but the brilliant flowers and the trailing vines 

 that drape and embower them. 



American women live in-doors too much, and thus sacrifice their 

 health and spirits. They cultivate neuralgia, dyspepsia, and all their 

 attendant ills rather than the beautiful and glorious flowers which 

 God has scattered so abundantly all over the world. 



This little pamphlet is written for the purpose of coaxing them to 

 come out into the sunshine, and begging them to 



4 ' List to Nature's teachings." 



A little garden, all one's own, is a real Eden ! Earth possesses no 

 greater charm; and there is no cosmetic equal to the fresh, sweet morn- 

 ing air, and the cheerful sunshine. 



You can make no investment which will give you such interest; 

 health, happiness, and pure enjoyment will be the coin in which it is 

 paid ; and the returns are not made semi-annually, but daily. 



With what intense delight one watches the first tiny leaves of the 

 seeds one has planted ; and what pleasure one takes in the unfolding 

 of the first flower ! A grand garden cared for by a gardener, can never 

 give its possessor as much delight as one in which nearly all the work 

 is done by one's own hands. 



To be sure, Pat O'Shovelem's aid is needful to prepare the ground, lay 

 out the beds, and harden the walks ; but, gentler, smaller hands can 

 plant the seeds and roots, can keep down the weeds, tie up, stake, train, 

 water and prune. 



