The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-11-07
OUR GARDEN.

/ There are few greater luxuries in life
Ehsn the possession Of garden, fine
ad kitchen garden, where from long
care the soil has tropical richness;
here there are corners for balm and
sysrbs'' and spicy shrubs; where rows
HI currant bushes shut you Oft from rows
m tomatoes; where there are long ar
lbors of case knife beans; where melons
|mrprise you among ~thickets of corn,
land pumpkins and sqnashes climb over
|the stone-wall and hang their yellow
realth on the other side; where the
ssrrot, shreds her lovely itresses, the red
,eined beet leaves make patch of color,
fhe cabbages are like apotheosized green
uses where shady grass-plots are left
,bout apple trees and nut trees, about
nr1e one pear-tree famous the country
nund, some rosy peach or bearer of
translucent plums; where industry and
adleness, shadow and sunshine, pleas
ne and thrift, are blended in one
cbarming composition; a place sacred
to long sunny mornings. to the working
aotf of megrims; where one works and
7pretends to play, where one plays and
IIoretends to work where one dreams of
the subtle chemistry by which the seed
be buries, with the atoms of earth and
prdure, dew and sunshine, around it, is
metamorphosed till ashes become gold,
liking out a narrow income, and wakes
% find that, on the other hand, it was
eold he buried and only ashes that re-
main, leaving him profoundly convinc-
sd that gold is not one of the original
metals. since himself has reduced it to
is constituent elements and gases---a
lace, in fact, which one discovers, af-
r infinite loss and disappointment, is
ae sole common ground of two great
shsses of society, and can belong only
81 the millionaire or to the day laborer.
We were neither millionaires nor day
hborers, but when we moved to Craigie
Ne were resolved to have garden---s.a
nsl old fashioned kitchen-garden, Roy.
H." said I.
sit takes years to make real old
fashioned garden, was the reply.
"No; only money. There are half a
dozen ,apple-trees for nucleus already,
land we only nsed TO set ont. the largest
bushes and ounces that can
bear transplanting. - No, it will only
take money"
"But we haven't a great deal of
money."
"We don't need great deal-just
enough to buy our top-dressing, and
have the earth spaded and planted, and
then the things will come up of them
alyes, you know-we can't effect that.
Major Bayley will be delighted to give us
some dwarf pears, and we can buy few
Standard roses-''
"Roses in a kitchen-garden?''
"Oh yes; it is charming to come up
On some great flower when you are hunt
iig for last pod of peas-like unex-
Pected wealth, you know. And we shall
get mine of happiness out of it, and
ave the cost of all our vegetables, and
have some to give away, and perhaps
yes, very probably-add a surplus to our
income. Oh, wouldn't be without a
Kitchen garden on any account. I'd
nther be without drawing-room.
There was no use in moving down to
tragic If we were not to have q kitchen
arden. q
All which meant that Mr.. Royal was
opposing me enough to make me think
Twas having my own way, whenin re-
Mty ne was having his, and intended a
fitchen-garden from the start.
SWELL" he said, if you really will
nave the garden-I warn you it will be
agreat deal Of trouble-"s
"Oh, no matter about the trouble, -
said I.
swell, then, the first thing to do is
% nave that spot ploughed should have
oeen done last fall and the sod turned
up to rot.n
we had decided upon the precise
pace at last-on the south side of the
apple-trees, having quarreled over every
.ncn OF ground, sowed it with salt and
Nasered It with tears, so to say, in our
enoeavor to locate the garden with ref
sIsnce to sunshine, security, privacy.
snd pleasure, till it became as memora-
Me 70 Us as the landmarks where everv
II OAN 0Cl AlduS uStQ 10 TAKE
@elr children and box their ears SOL
s@n.y al round that they might never
orget the locality. y
The first thing to do," repeated
sd, is to have the ground plough.
g. It's virgin soil. [ don't believe
- snare has ever turned a sod of it
a%ce the days of the primeval forest. .
winch conjecture was sound one,
~ sve discovered next day when Neigh.
~. "eidon's broken plowshares as
son s1 Us that our garden-plot was
ha hlSunuea on rock. "Well,"I over
s;sa sGs,a Royal saying to the men, "my
.h Sne mas set her heart on garden, and
sae shall not be disappointed. We'll
ave tosblast.'' And so for a day OF
w the click of drills and hammers re.
funded, and then came a shock as B
.ss layer and earth were coming together,
ns. ny .ney had blasted indeed-a prema.