A GARDEN IN VENICE 



of their wages on their fathers and mothers, till 

 they are perhaps called to the army, when the 

 families find them pence for their necessities and 

 small pleasures, or till they marry, which they 

 do as a rule very young, and their own obliga- 

 tions begin. The children come quick, and 

 there is a struggle perhaps until the elder ones 

 begin to work, when the money they earn is 

 brought into the family budget. So taken is this 

 for granted, that when a boy of sixteen in my 

 service died the other day, and I expressed my 

 very real regret to one of his family, he said, 

 " Yes, is it not hard on his father, who will lose 

 his salary." 



Next to the gardeners come the Dachshunds, 

 of which there were eight this spring. Alas, 

 appreciative friends carried off four, and now 

 there are only the grandmother, father and 

 mother, and baby. As co-proprietors of the 

 garden it is necessary to mention them ; indeed, 

 what would the garden be without them ; their 

 skins like satin, their manners of perfection, 

 their tempers, which yield each to each without 



Q .121 



