252 MOONLIGHT GARDENS 



The natural divinity of trees, their fruit, 

 the shelter they afford from the sun or bitter 

 winds, their green leafy mystery, the sense of 

 protection and consolation they bestow, — all this 

 is felt more vividly in Eastern countries than in 

 Northern climes, where people tend to drift away 

 from earlier, simpler realities. Nature is not so 

 near in England as in India. The cold which 

 forces us to use our wits, shuts us in from many 

 things. 



So we have left phytomancy — the divination 

 or speech of trees — and many other pretty things, 

 now called by long names, behind us, and the 

 garden, fond as we are of it, cannot talk to us 

 as it can to Indian hearts which are still full of 

 " the intelligence of the flowers." Krishna one 

 day hid from his wife in the forest, and she 

 wandered about seeking for him. Wherever 

 she went down the long green glades, the trees 

 drooped sadly, and the flowers hung their closed 

 heads. At last she espied a tree in the direction 

 of which a herd of fawns with large black eyes 

 were grazing placidly, where the flowers looked 

 bright and wide-awake, and birds were singing 

 and flying happily from branch to branch ; and 

 there was Krishna fast asleep in the shade ! 



