a bark-covered dish of earth.

XI

A SEASIDE GARDEN

(Barbara Campbell to Mary Penrose)

_Gray Rocks, July 19._ Your epistle upon the evils of an excess of
flowers in the house found us here with the Cortrights and Bradfords,
and I read it with Lavinia and Sylvia on either side, as the theme had
many notes in it familiar to us all! There are certainly times and
seasons when the impulse is overpowering to lay hold of every flower
that comes in the way and gather it to one's self, to cram every
possible nook and corner with this portable form of beauty and fairly
indulge in a flower orgie. Then sets in a reaction that shows, as in so
many things, the middle path is the best for every day. Also there are
many enthusiastic gardeners, both among those who grow their own flowers
and those who cause them to be grown, who spare neither pains nor money
until the flowers are gathered; then their grip relaxes, and the house
arrangement of the fruit of their labour is left to chance.

In many cases, where a professional gardener is in charge, several
baskets, containing a confused mass of blossoms, are deposited daily in
porch or pantry, often at a time when the mistress is busy, and they are
either overlooked or at the last moment crammed into the first
receptacle that comes to hand, from their very inopportuneness creating
almost a feeling of dislike.

When once lodged, they are frequently left to their fate until they
become fairly noisome, for is there anything more offensive to aesthetic
taste than blackened and decaying flowers soaking in stagnant water?

Was it not Auerbach, in his _Poet and Merchant_, who said, "The lovelier
a thing is in its perfection, the more terrible it becomes through its
corruption"? and certainly this applies to flowers.

Flowers, like all of the best and lasting pleasures, must be taken a
little seriously from the sowing of the seed to the placing in the vase,
that they may become the incense of home, and the most satisfactory way
of choosing them for this use is to make a daily tour about the garden,
or, if a change is desired, through the fields and highways, and, with
the particular nook you wish to fill in mind, gather them yourself.

Even the woman with too wide a selection to gather from personally can
in this way indicate what she wishes.

In the vegetable garden the wise man thinks out his crop and arranges a
variety for the table; no one wishes every vegetable known to