THE MATRIMONIAL GARDEN. 



97 



all your care, this sweet little plant, and you will find 

 it prevent the growth of all poisonous and noxious 

 weeds. 



Allow me also to drop a hint on the subject of cul- 

 tivation, as connected with propagation, as that 

 most probably will be your employment in this garden, 

 sooner or later. Should you have the rearing of a 

 young plant, remember that it is frail in its nature, 

 and liable to be destroyed by every blast, and will 

 demand all your care and attention. Should you be 

 witness to a blast on its dawning beauties, Oh, how 

 your fond heart will bleed with tenderness, affection, 

 and sympathy ! The young shoot will naturally twine 

 around all the fibres of your frame. Should it live and 

 thrive, spare no pains to " train it up in the way it 

 should go. 5 ' Weed it, water it, prune it ; it will need 

 all the cultivator's skill. Without this, many weeds 

 and baneful plants will grow up with it, and blast 

 your fondest hopes. Be ever mindful that this is a 

 trust for which both parties are accountable. 



Without careful cultivation, what can you expect 

 but the most luxuriant growth of unruly appetites, 

 which, in time, will break forth in all manner of dis- 

 graceful irregularities? What, but that ANGER, 

 like a prickly thorn, will arm the temper with an 

 untractable moroseness ? That PEEVISHNESS, like 

 a stinging nettle, will render the conversation irksome 

 and forbidding ? That AVARICE, like some choking 

 weed, will teach the fingers to gripe, and the hands to 

 oppress? That REVENGE, like some poisonous 



