A GARDEN IN VENICE 



out a garden. But before this happy climax ages 

 passed and much work was needed. 



Fortunately to our gain, if to others' loss, 

 society in the cinque cento was not perfect. Men 

 and women were rarely safe out of patrician 

 houses, or away from under that sign of peace, 

 the Church. So Monasteries set up this sign on 

 every islet in the Lagoon of Venice, and one on 

 the Giudecca fenced in with a thick wall from 

 depredation of man or encroachment of the tide, 

 the plot of ground of which I write. 



To the monks we owe the present gardener's 

 cottage, and the sign of the Cross that decorates, 

 and, let's hope, blesses it. 



Then the monk gave way to the patrician who 

 built the so-called Palazzina for the pleasure of 

 himself and friends, that, conscious maybe of its 

 worldly purpose, turns its shoulder to the Cottage 

 Cross. 



Perhaps the life of the one was as good as the 

 life of the other, in any case they were both use- 

 ful even if they did not mean or know it ; for they 

 dug and planted, or made dig and plant, and we 

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