Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/79

 your flower-beds are as big as all outdoors, as mine are, there's a great deal of care and responsibility in them, I assure you. I like it, however. I enjoy sowing millions of seeds, and setting little roots to straggle, and pruning and clipping. Every flower that ever grew is in my list, and I manage to see it in bloom somewhere or other. If I were subject to rose-cold, I should go crazy; for smelling is my delight. Ah! you should see my rose-beds in Damascus. But the nicest garden I ever made was a very tiny one which was planted to please some little children. Shall I tell you about it?"

"Oh, yes, do!" cried Max.

"It was in a cold country, a long way from here, which I never visit till pretty late in the season. You have to cross the sea to get to it. Once only red people lived there. They dwelt in wigwams, and didn't care much for me, except that I melted the snow which kept them from their hunting-grounds. But one year, on arriving I found something new. A ship