April 17.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
39 
smouldering embers ; some will go idling about to see their 
“ friends,” forsaking the presence of their best and dearest 
Friend in heaven; and some will spend the sacred hours in 
Satan’s court—the beer-house. Ah, let us look back to the 
days when Christians hid themselves in caves and holes of 
the rocks, that they might worship “ in spirit and in truth,” 
and let such recollections quicken us to value and use the 
glorious freedom we now enjoy with increasing earnest¬ 
ness ! We have long rested peacefully beneath the shadow 
of Almighty wings; the standard of our Lord has waxed 
gloriously above our heads, and our “ Captain,” “ with a 
drawn sword in liis hand,” has guarded the white cliffs of 
our British Zion; from every foe. But we may grow cold, 
and careless of our inestimable mercies; and the day may , 
alas! come, when we shall sigh and cry for the abominations 
done in our land, and mourn over the slighted privileges 
and neglected opportunities that we enjoy no more. 
Not many year's ago, there stood, close to the church-yard 
gate, a baker’s shop. It changed its inmates; and the new 
possessor, after continuing for some time to carry on that 
trade, turned half the premises into a beer-house also. 
They were people of active habits; and Joseph K - was 
supposed to be a man of substance; but with all his 
“ getting,” he did not “ get understanding," for he never went 
to church. The noise and uproar that frequently took place 
at his house was great; it was the resort of “navies,” who 
were then constructing a rail-road, and for whose benefit it 
was surmised that this new pitfall was principally dug ; and 
although, after that fraternity passed away, things were 
quieter than they had been, yet it still remained a beer¬ 
house, and as such, a crying evil in the land. 
One day, about twelve o’clock, a thin vapour was seen to 
rise from the thatched roof of this baker’s shop. It was 
noticed, and an alarm was given;—the house was on fire! 
In a few minutes ready hands tore away the smoking thatch; 
the fire-engine played vigorously upon the spot, and hope was 
entertained that the mischief might be averted; people 
flocked to the scene of alarm, and all that could be done 
was vigorously tried. But it was soon found that the flames 
could not be checked; the slight building must perish in 
spite of every effort. 
Oh, what a scene of horror is a fire! The crackling of the 
burning materials, the dense smoke, the terrible aspect of 
the flames, literally licking up all before them, the burning 
flakes flying about, the roaring of the fire, the shouting, the 
distress, the ruin of all around, and the impotence of man 
to overcome the furious element! It gives us a faint and 
feeble idea, with all its terrors, of that “day of God, wherein 
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat." 
A double row of people extended to the river side, 
conveying a continual line of buckets to supply the engine ; 
the vicar himself laboured, and directed the labours with 
his powerful arm and trumpet-voice; but all was vain! 
Bread, and beer, and clothes, and furniture, fed the 
devouring fire, and in two short hours there was nothing 
left but one trembling, blackened wall, and a heap of 
smoking ruins. 
It was an awful warning. The walls that had echoed the 
vain songs and unholy language of the poor benighted 
frequenters of the beer-house, had fallen, in one unexpected 
moment, like those of Jericho; the very beer itself was 
consumed before their eyes, and scarcely an article was 
preserved, although the fire took place in the middle of the 
day, so rapid and violent was its progress. 
Joseph Iv- in a few months time took another beer¬ 
house in a neighbouring parish. It bore, indeed, the digni¬ 
fied name of an inn, but it was to all intents and purposes 
a “ pitfall,” and had been just rebuilt, after having also been 
destroyed by fire. Here K —*- remained a year or two, 
but in a decaying state. He had been deaf to the voice of 
the fire, and his worldly prosperity deserted him. He 
became quickly involved, got into debt on all hands, and 
was at length obliged to give up the “inn,” and get on, no 
one knew how. Then he took again to baking, and he is 
now once more the conductor of a new “ pitfall," but not in 
his oivn name, lest his creditors should seize upon his effects 
to pay themselves. 
At this solemn, yet joyful season, when we celebrate the 
dying love, and the risen glory of our great Redeemer, let 
us pause awhile, and examine our own state before God. 
Let us take warning from the story of Joseph K-. We 
may not keep beer-houses; we may not turn our feet entirely 
from God’s Sabbath service; yet we may learn a wholesome 
lesson. Ho we “walk after the imagination of our own 
evil hearts ? ” Are we “ doing our own ways, finding our 
own pleasure, and speaking our own words ” on the Sabbath 
day? Are we making it serve two ends? Are we 
wickedly and ruinously trying to obey two masters? If so, 
our spiritual state is no better than that of Joseph K-. 
We may not, as yet, have been answered “ by fire;” but we 
are provoking God's wrath, and we may be bringing down 
upon our own heads yet swifter destruction. 
There is great carelessness in some places as to the 
manner of spending Good Friday. It is the most solemn 
day in the Christian’s calendar; and should be most strictly 
reverenced. On this day, the redemption of man was fully 
wrought out, the cleansing blood was shed, the mighty price 
of souls was paid, the warrant of our “hope,” was signed 
and sealed. And shall we regard this day, when the veil of 
the temple was rent in twain, a common day ? I cannot bear 
to see carts and men at work, and the business of life 
going on unconcernedly, at the very time when the sun’s 
light was darkened, and the insensible earth itself 
quaked beneath the stupendous work of man’s salvation, as 
if we had no part or lot in the matter! 
Let the cottage gardeners set a bright, though humble 
example of reverence for holy days and things. Let them 
set their faces as flints against what is evil, and range 
themselves boldly on the Lord’s side. The days are at 
hand when a choice must he made. How long shall “we halt 
between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, follow him; 
but if Baal, then follow him.” 
PARIS FLOWER MARKETS. 
I saw the Aster last autumn, exhibited for sale in the 
flower markets of Paris, in greater perfection than I have 
yet seen it grown in England. They were brought in pots 
of all colours, not with lateral or straggling branches upon 
them, but with strait stems, and surmounted with tufts of 
flowers, well up in the centre, many of them as large as 
dahlias; these pots were readily purchased by the Parisians, 
to ornament their shop windows, sitting rooms, halls and 
saloons. 
Another point in which the French appear to excel us, 
was the tasteful manner in which the market women 
exhibited their bouquets of cut flowers; these were made on 
the spot, and when composed of dahlias, were mostly of a 
dome shape, the flowers appearing in different coloured 
circles, and so placed as to reflect each other’s beauties; 
sometimes the circles were horizontal, sometimes vertical; 
but whether the nosegays were formed of dahlias, or of a 
mixture of smaller and more tender flowers, as the verbena, 
geranium, &c., the same attention to contrast of colour 
prevailed, and all were placed in a neat white paper 
envelope. “ Thank you,” said a lady to me, as I handed 
her one of these bouquets, on her alighting from the 
Railway cariage at Tonbridge, “ I brought that from Paris, 
to shew my friends how much better they manage these 
things in France.” S. P., Bushmere. 
HOW TO MAKE ASPARAGUS BEDS. 
Four feet beds; plant a foot apart, and leave one foot 
outside. Three rows ; rich sifted mould, eight inches ; three 
year old plants; keep roots horizontal. When plants come 
up, weed them well, and pick off all the berries to prevent 
exhaustion. Do not cut first year, and second sparingly. 
Plant end of March; dig three feet, if clay, and put brick 
rubbish eight inches; then mix all the way up dung with 
the earth, and on the top a fine soil; strong dung the better, 
as Asparagus is a gross feeder. Urine is excellent, and salt 
in March gets giant Asparagus, and, with a little attention at 
first, the beds will last fifty years. A. J. Y. 
