6 



A SIMPLE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Books are well enough ; but not upon them alone must 

 you rely. Aunt Louisa must be your guide and teacher in 

 this venture. Then, too, we must keep our eyes open, and 

 observe carefully everything of interest in other people's 

 gardens. We can learn a deal by mere inspection. There 

 is Squire Bent's place, with its fanciful borders cut out in 

 the wide lawn before the dwelling-house. He keeps a 

 gardener. From the garden, and perhaps from the man 

 himself, we can gather much information. There is Far- 

 mer Brown's roomy mansion just up the road. Only a 

 few simple flowers hide under the scraggy lilac-bushes in the 

 front yard; but even there something may be learned. 

 Lastly, there stands Lawyer Wilson's desolate house, with 

 neither lawn nor garden. There we can see what a mis- 

 take it is to have one's home surrounded by so much barren- 

 ness and rural wretchedness." 



" Yes, and would it not be a good idea to make notes of 

 all we learn ? They would not only be useful to ourselves, 

 but might one day serve to aid some rural house-keeper, who 

 wants a flower garden, and has no Aunt Louisa to help 

 her." 



' ' Agreed. Who knows but it may in time rise to the 

 dignity of print? " 



So it was that this garden came to be established, and 

 these notes expanded into this little book. 



Here follow the notes as made up from the books, keen 

 observations of sundry real gardens. Aunt Louisa's directions, 



