THE JOY OF A GAUDEN. 
81 
sneer at a cucumber with the bloom on, a fragrant mush¬ 
room hot from the gridiron, a basket of strawberries to 
dip in the breakfast cream, or even a dish of marrowy 
green kale with a savoury joint on a frosty day ? 
And there are higher pleasures, too, in this depart¬ 
ment of gardening. If our wits are not exercised in the 
arrangement of figures and colours to please the eye, o r 
our ingenuity taxed to acclimatize and bloom choice 
varieties, there is much to employ thought, and not a few 
pretty spectacles, as the seasons work their changes, now 
smothering the fruit trees with snowy bloom, and now 
loading their branches with the lovely fruit; the very 
beet is pretty as its richly bronzed foliage meets from 
row to row; and as to most crops in full luxuriance of 
growth, there is much real beauty in a well-disposed, aid 
well-kept profitable garden, the charms of which are 
much enhanced by the idea of utility that accompanies 
the enjoyment of them. One would not be in haste to 
condemn a poor cottager for striving to excel in the 
growth of flowers; but there would be greater interest in 
his success if we saw that his cabbage and potato plots 
were not neglected, and that, in the aching of his heart 
for something beautiful, he did not forget the kale pot 
and the appetites of his little ones. Nor would the 
thriving citizen, who takes a pride in his beds of aspa¬ 
ragus, his trellises of tomatoes, and his creamy cauli¬ 
flowers, ever need to fear the criticism of his friends and 
neighbours, for that which is really useful has a dignity 
peculiar to itself, and makes its own assertion of its 
Tight to encouragement. Whoever turns his skill and 
patience to account in the creation of the material neces- 
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