236 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



Again we all go outside in the garden, and sit under 

 one of its fine trees and eat as much of the fruit of it 

 as we are able. That is what one very elegant young 

 person at least says quite frankly that she and a com- 

 panion did, on a certain summer afternoon, long ago. 

 For there is no candy, remember, except on special oc- 

 casions; the great cabbage-head nosegays are the gal- 

 lantest gift which can be mustered when young men 

 go a-courting — true nosegays that refresh with their 

 spicy fragrance as much as with their lovely showy 

 colors. 



So first of all — away back here in the yesterday — 

 as we must live from them, our "gardens" — ^using the 

 word in its most inclusive sense — are useful. Not un- 

 til every economic need of the family and the house- 

 hold has been supplied, do we dare allow ourselves the 

 space and the time for anything that lacks a purpose. 

 Fruit in abundance — apples, pears, quinces, cherries, 

 peaches, plums, raspberries, currants, blackberries, 

 barberries, grapes — all of these in choicest variety, and 

 enough of the right kinds to insure quantities of 

 "cyder" and a vintage of good wine; then the flax; 

 then the plants that yield their juices for dye; then all 

 the sweet and bitter herbs for flavoring, seasoning and 

 steeping; then some damask roses for the still; and 

 finally, after all the rest, the pretty flowers that have 

 only the excuse of their own loveliness for being. 



