186 WOOD AND GARDEN 



help him with advice ? So advice was sent and the 

 box prepared. If I remember rightly the size was 

 three feet by ten inches. A little later the post 

 brought him little plants of mossy and silvery saxi- 

 frages, and a few small bulbs. Even some stones were 

 sent, for it was to be a rock-garden, and there were to 

 be two hills of different heights with rocky tops, and a 

 longish valley with a sunny and a shady side. 



It was delightful to have the boy's letters, full of 

 keen interest and eager questions, and only difficult to 

 restrain him from killing his plants with kindness, in 

 the way of liberal doses of artificial manure. The 

 very smallness of the tiny garden made each of its 

 small features the more precious. I could picture 

 his feeling of delightful anticipation when he saw the 

 first little bluish blade of the Snowdrop patch pierce 

 its mossy carpet. Would it, could it really grow into 

 a real Snowdrop, with the modest, milk-white flower 

 and the pretty green hearts on the outside of the inner 

 petals, and the clear green stripes within ? and would it 

 really nod him a glad good-morning when he opened 

 his window to greet it ? And those few blunt reddish 

 horny-looking snouts just coming through the ground, 

 would they really grow into the brilUant blue of the 

 early SquiU, that would be like a bit of midsummer 

 sky among the grimy surroundings of the attic window, 

 and under that grey, soot-laden northern sky ? I 

 thought with pleasure how he would watch them in 

 spare minutes of the dinner-hour spent at home, and 



