MOEE POT-POUEEI 



SEPTEMBER 



Reasons for writing another ' Pot-Pourri ' Advice of friends 

 Criticisms grave and gay Return home after three months abroad 

 Disappointment with dry garden Kingfisher Sedum specta- 

 bile and insects Gardening Cooking. 



September 1st, 1898. It is now a year and a half since I 

 finished my first book, and the public have been almost 

 as appreciative and generous in their praise of it as my 

 nieces were. Kind letters of all sorts have poured in, 

 and I have been overwhelmed with suggestions about 

 the future, and what I should or should not do. Some 

 have said and I admit that these, in all friendliness, are 

 the most earnest in their heartfelt appeals that I should 

 rest on my laurels and write no more. They urge that a 

 second book always falls flat. If on the same subject as 

 the first, it is generally a failure. If on a new subject, it 

 is apt to be outside the writer's experience. And then they 

 quote several incontestable examples which jump to the 

 recollection of everybody. I really agree with this view 

 of the case up to the point of not acting upon it. 

 Nothing can ever bear being done a second time. This 

 is one of the sadnesses of life, and I do not for a moment 

 anticipate that No. 2 can please in the same kind of way 

 as did No. 1. The method not being new, my readers 

 will know pretty well what to expect ; and this, probably, 



