HESTER'S EXPERIMENT. 



677 



guisite appearance of the many varieties of turf, in 

 pure cultures, but what they said was fully reported 

 in the journals of the day. 



September was a haj'd month for sJiows, but we 

 were very fortunate in the weather. The expense 

 and trouble we were at were justified in the end by 

 the rapid changes in our neighbors' opinions, and 

 need not be repeated as grass gardens become plenty. 

 " Yours truly, 



" Mrs. Dr. A. B. Tarryer " 

 [We also have a sharp letter from Mrs. Tarryer 

 taking us to task for omitting from the last issue a 

 picture of a pensive young woman in the act of us- 

 ing one of her improved weeding thimbles We 



have hesitated somewhat lest the heads of some of 

 our young gardeners might be turned, and they 

 should start for Tarrytown forthwith. But the fol- 

 lowing day we received a confidential letter from 

 Dr. Tarryer, urging us to use the picture for do- 

 mestic reasons of his own, and we have complied. 

 Dr. Tarryer also gives us the following advice : 

 " Save all your misfit canes and spent parasol and 

 umbrella handles ! Mrs Tarryer puts her weeding 

 thimbles on the small end of them, with the great- 

 est success, in any weeding or thinning of seedlings 

 Knock off the ferule, fit a loop of old watch spring 

 to the tip, and drive the ferule on to hold it. Beats 

 all!"— Ed.] 



HESTER'S EXPERIMENT. 



WILL tell you frankly at the very 

 outset that Hester was neither 

 very young nor very handsome. 

 A goodly number of summers, to 

 say nothing of winters, had 

 passed over her head. She had 

 reached the age when life had begun to lose some 

 of its illusions, and when, "somehow, things do 

 not seem as funny as they used to." 



Again, Hester's experiment was not one to make 

 money. She was not trying to earn her own living, and 

 she did not catch even a glimpse of any royal road to 

 such a goal. But the experiment was a bold strike, if 

 not for liberty, at least for a new interest in life ; for a 

 means of relief from low spirits and a state both of mind 

 and body rapidly getting to the point where even a 

 smaller thing than the grasshopper was becoming a 

 burden. 



Hester always had an ache or a pain somewhere. 

 She really was not very robust, and the life of indolent 

 ease that she led, continually cared for and coddled by a 

 most devoted family, was gradually reducing her to 

 such an inert condition that days, weeks, and even 

 years, spent on a sofa would be the natural result, end- 

 ing in confirmed invalidism. 



But she had the remains of a very strong will, and 

 possessed a great love of nature, so a few wise words 

 gave her an impetus in the right direction. She deter- 

 mined to make this experiment, and to persevere in it, 

 even to the bitter end ; but she fondly hoped for a 

 pleasant one. There had always been a flower garden 

 attached to the place (said place contained about an acre), 

 and the poor garden had passed from one to another of 

 the family, as this or that one felt inclined to the work. 

 One year it was Mary's, and it was "a sight !" — the 

 weeds higher and thicker than any of the poor strug- 

 gling plants. Another year Lucy took it in hand and 

 worked in it with might and main, and a few prim 

 flower beds appeared, with a meagre supply of delicate 



flowers. Each plant was carefully staked, set out just 

 so, and never allowed to bend either to the right or to 

 the left. 



For a few years it was " mother's garden," and the 

 little plot truly blossomed like the rose. She was a true 

 lover of flowers, but the required labor was too hard 

 for the dear old lady, and, as she said, " When one has 

 to put on spectacles to plant seeds, it is about time to 

 stop," Then for a long time the poor garden spot re- 

 mained sunk in a state of "innocuous desuetude," 

 only a few old-fashioned perennials appearing cour- 

 ageously each spring. Hester had this bit of land in 

 her " mind's eye," and also a much larger piece, about 

 a sixth of an acre, stretching away below the pear 

 orchard. When she decided to start on her new ven- 

 ture, this larger piece was in clover, but she could re" 

 member it as being, in her childhood, a fine kitchen- 

 garden. But herfather's increasing business had led to 

 its abandonment for that purpose, and the family de- 

 pended for its vegetable diet on the village markets. 



Hester resolved to institute a new order of things, 

 and to prove to herself, as well as to the others, that 

 there was nothing like the products of one's own vine 

 and fig tree. She sent far and wide for agricultural 

 books and papers, and for catalogues of every known 

 plant. After imbibing a great amount of book farming, 

 and feeling quite qualified to undertake the job, she 

 broached the subject to the assembled family. Long, 

 loud, and great was the outcry that arose, but in the 

 end Hester had her own way (she usually did, we ob- 

 serve in passing) and her experiment soon began, in 

 spite of the many ill-omened remarks of friends and 

 neighbors — "You will kill yourself," "You will be 

 perfectly stiff with rhumatiz, " etc. , etc. But her father 

 said : " Let the child try it; it may do her more good 

 than harm, and I think I shall be able to foot the bills. " 



So Hester engaged a spry young-appearing septua- 

 genarian, and although he had only one seeing eye and 

 was rather deaf and a little stiff in the joints, he was 

 very good to work, and very glad of the modest stipend 



