eillabket. 



FERNS. 



Thebe must loe few, iiideedj who are indifferent to the attrao. 

 tions presented by a well-ordered garden, whether it be the 

 trim little slip of ground that lies before the entrance of thg 

 humble cottage, or the closely-mown lawn, jewelled with bril. 

 Uant flower-beds and bordered with evergreen shrubberies, that 

 stretches in broad expanse before the stately mansion. 



We may often draw satisfactory conclusions as to a man's 

 general character from the condition of his garden : the well- 

 kept piece of ground as surely betokens a man of thrifty and 

 industrious habits, who knows what is right and practises it 

 in aU the relations and duties of life, as a ragged untidy grass 

 plat and unkempt flower-beds, if the term be admissible, that 

 are choked with weeds, show the owner to be an idle, careless 

 fellow at the least, and probably a very indifferent, nay, even 

 worthless member of society. 



This is strikingly exemplified in country life, for the neatest 

 garden? ia the vQlage will be found to belong to the most 

 industrious and trustworthy labouring men in the district, who 

 thus spend the few spare hours that their vocation gives them, 

 instead of wasting them in the pot-house and the skittle-alley, 

 51 



feOl 



