lO GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
daughter of nine to ah out-of-town garden every Saturday 
morning foi two seasons. They have jDeen learning together 
how to garden. 
Appreciation of country life for children is, however, not 
confined to the ranks of the well-to-do. Those who are tied 
to a job through an eight- or nine-hour working day are also 
willing to make sacrifices for the sake of this idea. The wider 
one’s experience the firmer one’s belief that gardens have no 
stronger advocates than the plain people. 
An incident is worth telling here. In the throng at a 
recent horticultural show of children’s gardens two visitors 
attracted the writer’s attention, — Veronica (a small colored 
girl, aged twelve) and her mother. Evidently they had come 
for a purpose. They inspected Jthe prize tables, lingering a 
long time at each. Every now and then Veronica would write 
in her scrap of a notebook. An acquaintance was soon struck up. 
It appeared that the exhibit was to be used as the subject 
of a school composition, the children having been permitted 
to choose their own theme. But why this particular one } 
Thereupon hung a story. They lived in a South End tene- 
ment ; the mother did cleaning. Her regular places were 
mostly offices in buildings down- town, but on Saturdays she 
scrubbed for a private family ten miles out. This was because 
she could take Veronica along, who was allowed to work in 
the garden with the children of the family. The mother after 
some coaxing explained why she considered the triple sacri- 
fice of time, strength, and money worth making, expressing in 
the vernacular of a working woman the fervor of a Pestalozzi. 
So far we have spoken of the value of gardens to individual 
children with little reference to the stimulus of companion- 
ship. But in stopping here we should lose sight of a tre- 
mendous force, — the drawing of kindred natures together 
for the better accomplishment of some distinct end. 
