CHAPTER II. 



OUR GARDEN. 



The garden is in part our outdoor world. 

 It is microcosmic. There is so much in it and 

 we make so much of it and we get so much out 

 of it. It is not large, but oh so high, for we 

 seem to own all the way up into the blue sky 

 pavillioned with its splendid worlds. We fancy 

 ourselves to be central to the richest star-fields, 

 and I fear that we map out larger regions there 

 than our garden here would warrant. But no 

 one questions our right, and we delight in the 

 upper ownership ; and really it is this conscious 

 upper and larger ownership that makes our 

 garden world here so very dear to us. We live 

 in both and from both get fine yields of roses 

 and fruits, great thoughts and lasting inspira- 

 tions. 



That a garden should always possess a defi- 

 nite relation to the house to which it belongs is 

 a theory which has never been disputed; but 

 exactly what that relation should be has always 

 been a matter of disagreement among different 

 schools of landscape gardeners. Some have 

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