SOILS 69 



a start' (nor wants one), and whose fractious horse 

 * wouldn't go near the brook' at the very crisis of 

 the run. 



The good gardener, on the contrary, the man 

 whose heart is in his work, makes the most of his 

 means, instead of wasting his time in useless lamenta- 

 tions. He knows that this world is no longer Eden, 

 and that only by sweat of brow and brain can he 

 bring flower or fruit to perfection. ^ Let me dig 

 about it and dung it,' he says of the sterile tree, 

 knowing as it was known when the words were 

 spoken, more than eighteen hundred years ago, 

 that to prune, and to feed the roots, is to reclaim 

 and to restore, wherever there is hope of restora- 

 tion.^ 



No long time ago, and while the judges at a 

 flower-show were making their awards, I strolled 

 with two other exhibitors, gardeners, into a small 

 nursery-ground not far distant. My companions 

 were strangers to me, but still more strange to each 

 other, for they seemed to differ in all points, as much 

 as two men having the same vocation could. The 

 one was of a cheerful countenance and conversation, 

 ruddy with health, lithe and elastic as a hunter in 



^ The occasional lifting and tap-root pruning of Standard Rose- 

 trees is beneficial, as a rule ; but exceptions should be made, when 

 the growth of stock, scion, and flower is vigorous, upon the excellent 

 principle of letting well alone. 



