6 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
I was very effusive in my praises; I realized what a valuable 
lesson I had learned in agriculture as well as in the neat work- 
manlike way a bed should be made. 
The instruction was not lost. The next day I gathered all 
sorts of tools together, chose an axe from the unlabelled col- 
lection, and trundled them out on the lawn to make a bed for 
myself. Everything was stubborn from the insubordinate 
turf to the hard soil. Every time I put in my spading fork it 
struck against stones. It was very hard unaccustomed work, 
and I soon sat down to ponder the easy grace of the gardener’s 
movements the day before. I worked a little more and then 
sat again, reflecting on the wisdom of the negro, who said, 
“De sun am so hot, de cotton am so dry, and dis yer nigger 
am so tired, I don’ got a call ta preach.” 
At this moment Adam appeared, and everything went on 
velvet wheels. Faint from fatigue, I was thoroughly dis- 
couraged, and decided that if successful flower gardening in- 
volved such labor, I should never attempt to play with that 
graceful art. But my memory of fatigue is short-lived, and 
before many days I began another bed, and again faltered; 
and I noted that if I faltered at the critical moment when 
Adam hove in sight, I had an able assistant at my command. 
So by dint of a little work and the use of discretionary fatigue 
I got a tidy bit of arable land under cultivation that summer, 
and I learned to pluck at my tools quite handily. I had the 
usual commonplace assortment of flowers, tall and dwarf 
nasturtiums, the double and single African marigolds in lemon 
and orange colors; but they made a respectable showing. 
Following the curve of the driveway, we had set out old- 
fashioned semi-double red Lancaster roses in a bed perhaps 
a hundred feet long, and I alternated the above-named an- 
nuals with the roses, so that there might be a succession of 
bloom after the roses had fallen. This also was successful, 
