II 



CONCERNING GARDENERS 

 (IN GENERAL) 



October 27. In my childhood's garden of dreams 

 there was no room for a gardener. To me that 

 name meant a being who was the interferer, not the 

 mediator between oneself and mother earth, a man 

 who tyrannized and sulked by turns ; in spring was 

 blatant and self-confident ; in autumn, owing to 

 divers mistakes, usually indignant with the quality 

 of the soil, the slope of the land, the amount of rain, 

 and the date of the coming of frost ; in short, made 

 us feel as if we had combined with nature to bring 

 about his martyrdom, which he bore with something 

 akin to triumph, enveloping himself with a halo of 

 failures. 



A gardener is of course a necessity to the very 

 rich, those unfortunates whose possessions have 

 expanded alike beyond their personal control and 

 out of the range of the affections, to the overbusy, 

 the ignorant, and the irresponsible. These four 

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