ut well-executed work in one
department by no means justifies slovenliness in another. Vacant spaces
of ground will need digging, but this operation should, if possible, be
left to a labourer, who, for the sake of a small remuneration, would
probably be very glad to do it after his ordinary working hours. Even an
enthusiast cannot but consider digging as the most laborious of all
gardening work, and will take especial care to shirk it whenever
possible. In fact, real garden drudgery of all kinds is better done by a
labourer, no matter how simple and easy such work may superficially
appear to our young folk. Good work, as we all know, can only be done by
an accustomed hand.

[Illustration: OFF TO HER GARDEN. (_See p. 239._)]

THE DISCONTENTED BOAT.

A boat came back from a journey. It had been to a far-off land. All the
sailors jumped ashore, only too glad to run about again, but they tied
up the boat to a long arm of rock, and left it there while they were
gone.

The tide was very low and the sky was dull; there was just enough water
to lap against the sides of the boat, and make it rock up and down. The
boat fretted like a petulant child, and pulled at the rope as a dog
pulls against its chain, but it could not get away, for all that.

"How dull it is here!" cried the little white boat; "they have all gone
on shore and are merry. They don't consider my feelings, left here for
the day all alone. And oh, what an ugly place this is!" and it looked
right and left.

The sky was grey, the tide was very low; the boat was lashed to a long
piece of rock that ran out like an arm into the sea. At each side of the
rock a mass of seaweed clung--limp and brown.

"Of all the ugly things I ever saw," exclaimed the boat, "that seaweed
is the worst. Think of the places I have been anchored in before--of the
lovely tropical flowers that grew at the water's edge."

"You do not know who we are," cried the seaweeds; "we are young fairy
sisters, who dance every night. This beach is the floor of our
ball-room, and we dance, and are decked with jewels. We dance and are
gay in the evening; in the daytime we lie still and rest."

"I do not believe you," said the boat; "you are ugly, and brown, and
old. And this place is the dullest I have seen all my life."

So the boat sulked, and was unhappy all day. But when the evening
arrived the sailors came down to the shore, and undid the boat, and
rowed away.

And the boat looked b