GARDENS AND GOSSIPS 
two may not much resemble the lovers’ mystery of 
talk, may indeed confine itself to the most ordinary 
topics and be entirely understandable of the multitude, 
yet who shall deny it its own peculiar quality, its note 
of home? After all, the garden that listened so ten¬ 
derly to the lovers, need not despise the conversation 
of this maturer couple, hobnobbing so quietly, and ap¬ 
parently only concerned with servant and office and 
bread-and-butter problems. Possibly an even deeper 
miracle lies within this matter-of-fact chatter than the 
lovers themselves were cognizant of. 
But these are by no means all who come to ex¬ 
change confidences in the shady nook. The white- 
aproned nurse-maid and her friend sit here, watching 
their charges, the rich Irish flowing in an unbroken 
stream, with Peggy this and Norah that, and “Sure 
it’s a wonder Tom don’t make his meanin’ clear,” or 
“’ T is a pretty dress ye had on at mass, Annie, would 
ye be afther tellin’ me where ye got the same ? ” “Will 
ye look at the childer, in the middle-midst of the nas- 
turshuns, glory be to God!” Or it may be a hit at a 
mutual acquaintance: “What, old Mrs. Blake, that lives 
by the car-track? Well, well, one niver can say what 
nixt! ” 
Perhaps, of all the various forms of gossip overheard 
by the garden, the loveliest is that between a young and 
an old person who are friends. Real friendship be¬ 
tween the generations is rare, but when it exists it is of 
