48 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
over every inch of ground on to the bitter end. “Now you. 
may begin here,” I say, setting his metes and bounds as if he 
were the ocean, “and work carefully down this way, keeping 
clear of every border at least a foot; they are full of things I 
can’t spare; but don’t touch this,” suddenly spying some 
perennial advanced to the third pair of seed leaves, “nor 
this—oh, you must shy away from that,” and I make magic 
rings of cleared ground with my own hoe about the endan- 
gered seedlings. : 
~ Adam has learned the fatal power of concentration, and 
hoes steadily on. His are not the sins of omission; he has a 
good heart and an imperturbable temper, yet he has the red 
hand of the slayer. Vainly do I make vast deserts of sand 
about little green oases I want spared. IfI look up in the sky 
one minute, or wander ten feet from his side to escape the 
death-cry of his victims—the deed is done. Destruction, apol- 
ogies and clean walks are synonyms for Adam’s hoeing. 
- Of late years I undertake this delicate commission alone. 
My hoe has intermittent habits, I always have from four to 
six very hot irons in the fire, and the worse the walks look, the 
less I want toseethem. But affairs work up to a climax, and I 
stand in nota little awe of Adam’s salutary criticism. . I prize 
his approbation and I am growing to likea clean, trim walk for 
its own sake, so I have learned to harden my heart and reap 
great harvests of flowering things that I would fain let stand. 
But when the painful task is over I feel the guilty contrition of 
a young girl I once knew, who used to beguile her lonely hours 
with rifle shooting, and, beiny a good shot, she would daily 
bring down a chipmunk or .ed squirrel, which she proceeded to 
bury with many tears *» her own small garden plot. Her grief 
took a prudent forr., for she planted each limp little body at 
the root of a shrup to serve as a fertilizer, and in consequence 
I always sp'.e of Margaret’s garden as her animal orchard. 
