WAY-SIDE HINTS. 113 



which he does not think it necessary to explore. But 

 where I see, with an equal degree of attention, irreg- 

 ularity and variety of treatment, tendrils a-droop 

 and fruit-spurs apparently neglected, I am not un- 

 frequently impressed with the belief that the cultiva- 

 tor is regardless of old and patent truths, because 

 their truth is proven, arid because his eye and mind 

 are on the strain toward some new development. 



When a good, kind horticultural gentleman takes 

 me by the button-hole, and tells me by the hour of 

 what length it is necessary to cut the new wood in 

 order to insure a good start for the buds at the base, 

 and how the sap has a tendency to flow strongest into 

 the taller shoots, and other such truisms, which have 

 been in the books these ten years, I listen respect- 

 fully, but cannot help thinking, " my dear good sir, 

 you will never set the river a-fire." 



Nor indeed do we want the river set on fire ; but 

 we want progress. And all I have said thus far is 

 but preliminary to the truth on which I wish to insist, 

 that a graduated progress is essential to all rational 

 enjoyment, whether in things rural, Christian, or com- 

 mercial. 



And for this reason I allege that all things which 

 are proper to be done about a country house, are not 

 to be done at once. Half the charm of life in such a 

 home is in every week's and every season's succeed- 



