26 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
marigolds and stock, and established the most intimate rela- 
tions. Both inside and outside my walls was a spirit of jovial 
fellowship. But the most immoral thing in the garden was 
a hop vine, perfectly incapable of self-support, ready to at- 
tach itself to any object. I found it one day twining like a boa 
constrictor around a tall grass stalk. Such shameful depend- 
ence upon any frail support at hand will, ultimately and in- 
evitably, lead hop vines, when they reach the human stage, to 
look to their wives for maintenance. 
I fostered an unnecessary grief that first summer. I was 
so happy in the plenitude of bloom, that I was ready to order 
mourning in advance of the sad day when the frost should de- 
stroy the beauty. Gentle melancholy darkened many an Au- 
gust day with the anticipated sorrow. But Nature has a kind 
way of alleviating many of our griefs. Before the frosts 
came, almost all my annuals—I had little else that summer— 
had run their race and wore a frowsy, jaded look, and I was 
thankful when, at last, a sharp frost added the finishing 
stroke, so that, with a clear conscience, I could tear up the 
withered stalks and throw them over the wall to make a deeper 
compost among the rocks outside. The need of removing 
-each plant as it faded had never occurred to me, for most of 
the garden faculties of my mind were still dormant. 
