THE DROUGHT 
165 
Joseph’s crimson ramblers along the wall are 
blooming. They have not grown very high this 
first year, although we are pleased tO' see them well 
covered with buds. We have kept them watered 
that they might not feel the drought ; nevertheless, 
I cannot help thinking that they know all about it. 
Plants are not easily fooled. They have a look 
which plainly says: “You can water us as much 
as you like, but you cannot make us forget this 
severe drought.” 
We wonder how long the drought is going to 
last, and wake each morning only to see the sky 
more intensely blue than it was the day before, and 
to find the sun more burning. Joseph says that 
such a thing as a drought was never mentioned in 
“An Ambitious Boy’s Garden,” yet surely no one 
could have a garden many seasons without having 
to contend with one. In this part of the country, 
Mr. Hayden says, a drought comes, almost as- reg- 
ularly as the aphis. It is one of the things that 
gardeners have to endure with patience. After all, 
I tell Joseph, it is much better than if we had had 
a flood washing all the plants away. If the clouds 
sent us toO’ much rain, we should be quite helpless ; 
while we can combat a drought by artificial water- 
ing. Still, it is no end of a nuisance. The most 
discouraging part of it all is to hear our neighbours 
say that the drought has just begun. “If it would 
only end to-morrow!” Joseph and I exclaim each 
evening. Then on the morrow we rove about, 
