I S4 
CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
v 
Children’s gardens are often so shady that 
you will have a great deal of work to keep 
them tidy in autumn, but you will find it a good 
occupation on some of the wild, sad autumn 
days. How often I have swept up the chestnut 
leaves that fell from great patriarchal trees that 
overlooked my little plot, while the words of 
Christina Rossetti’s nursery song rang in my 
head :— 
The wind has such a rainy sound, 
Moaning through the town ; 
The sea has such a windy sound ; 
Will the ships go down ? 
The apples in the orchard 
Tumble from their tree ; 
Oh, will the ships go down, go down, 
In the windy sea ? 
It is not often that a child’s garden is large 
enough to boast of apple trees of its own, but 
if there was space enough, it would certainly be 
a pleasure to have one. My first little garden 
was much too small, but later on I had room 
for an apple tree, and I planted also a medlar, 
a quince, and an almond—the medlar because 
I liked the fruit, the almond for the sake of its 
blossom, and the quince was a fancy of mine, as 
the fruit is so rare ; yet how often one sees 
the picture of it doing duty for Q in alpha¬ 
betical picture books. But it is not satisfactory 
