The Garden 

 that We Made 



The Little Ones would have a 

 Rockery in their Garden. 



Children must, of course, 

 imitate the grown ups. 

 Hence our children would 

 have a rockery in their 

 garden. They got the earth 

 mound ready, just as we had 

 done, and then they began 

 to carry stones and pebbles 

 from the beach. They had to get a horse and cart to 

 help them in their labours, for there is a steep hill from the 

 beach to Sofiero. 



In the end, there were several smaller rockeries — for 

 each would have their own. They thought baby brother — 

 seven months old — ought to have a rockery, too. So big six- 

 year-old sister undertook to take charge of baby's rockery 

 until the time when he would be able to see to it himself 



The different rockeries were each treated in a different 

 manner. Once, on a hot day, I saw that the one belonging 

 to one of the boys was altogether re-arranged. The soil 

 was being dug up afresh, and in the meantime all the plants 

 were on the path, carefully covered with a newspaper ! 

 There they lay for several days. But in spite of this 

 somewhat drastic treatment, the plants took root once more, 

 and his rockery was the prettiest one after all — another 

 proof that plants thrive when the owner loves them. 



These rockeries display a bit of everything. Stonecrops 

 with pink, white, and yellow flowers ; loosestrife in oreat 

 quantities, both the tiny yellow kind (official name, 

 N2imiiularia, but commonly known as creepino- Jenny), 

 and the taller one. There are ferns creeping out from the 

 crevices. There is the annual many-coloured portulaca, 

 begonia;, asters, and any gay-coloured flowers they can get 

 from the greenhouse, for the children ask the gardener for 

 any left-over ones. And there are even shrubs such as 

 azalea and spiraea, side by side with thistles, wild daisies, 

 and the flower that in English has the pretty name of 



Two 

 on a 

 Well. 



of the 

 seat 



little ones 

 beside the 



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