AT A ROSE-SHOW 259 



man. So he tells you with a slow and solemn tone, 

 looking the while as though, like Mozart composing 

 his own requiem, he listened to some plaintive music. 

 I used to regard him with a tender pity, as being 

 unhappy. I used to sigh — 



' Alas for him who never sees 

 The stars shine through his cypress-trees ! ' 



but our further acquaintance has convinced me that 

 he has a relish for melancholy. I watched him once, 

 when I knew, but he did not, that he had won a first 

 prize, to see what effect success would have upon him. 

 He came slowly to his Roses, and read the announce- 

 ment with an expression of profound despair, just as 

 though it had been a telegram informing him that 

 the bank, in which he had placed his all, proposed a 

 dividend of fourpence in the pound. 



Warned by these rare examples against anger, 

 avarice, and despond, assured that the horses which 

 rear, bite, kick, and sulk, are seldom winners of the 

 race, let the young exhibitor now acquaint himself 

 with his colleagues generally, and let him learn from 

 them, as from men who have not lived in vain amid 

 the beauties and the bounties of a garden, content- 

 ment, generosity, perseverance, hope. They will tell 

 him that the lessons of defeat will most certainly 

 teach him to conquer, if he w^ill only learn them 



