LIKE Mrs. Gummidge, of plaintive memory, "I am a lone, lorn critter," but, unlike her, I am not a widow. Rupert is an abiding presence in my home ; but, dear heart! when the highest aspiration of of the man of the house is to look pretty and play his flute, the only thing he ever was known even to attempt doing, is it a wonder if the feminine head of the house occasionally feels lone and lorn in view of the fact that she has to be ** captain, mate and crew " turn about and all in one ?

Still it was with a fair amount of courage that I, this spring, attacked the garden.

We had not tried to have any last year, but when, at the end of the season, I had to pay our green-grocer's bill out of my pen-money, I, who have to do all the tugging and stretching at both ends to make them meet, thought that this year we had better raise our own vegetables.

Rupert manifesting his usual unconcern, I went ahead in my womanish way. Night after night I pored over catalogues, while he petted his flute. At length I made out a list from the, to me, most attractive catalogue, viz.: that which was daintiest and most artistic in its makeup, and which promised the most tempting novelties.

Potatoes were ruled out of the list, as neither of us care for them, and I well knew that I should, single-handed, have to care for the potato-bugs.

Cabbage neither of us ate; ditto beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips, etc. If I turned gardener I would have the things I liked best, and plenty of them, I inly resolved. So down went sweet corn, pop corn, sugar peas, winter and summer squash (all of the most marvelous and enticing varieties), Tomhannock lettuce, White London mustard, curly cress, round-leaved spinach, large-leaved dandelion (I so love greens!), also vine-peach and ground-cherry, "which no garden should be without," and salsify for use in early spring. Of the new tomatoes, I selected the Golden Fig, Peach and German Raisin. Russian cucumbers I must have for salad ; early radish-onions for eating raw and pickling; also egg-plant and White Velvet okra to remind me of my native south.

At this stage I fancied I saw Rupert fixedly eye my lengthening list, although fingering his flute as usual, and, also as usual, saying never a word. So, as I myself thought I had about all I could well cultivate, 1 merely added some of the extraordinary fruits, such as everbearing blackberry trees, tree currants, Japanese wine-berries, Russian everbearing mulberries, with a few melon pears of Pepino, Japan pears, and new Russian apricots; also some Mammoth dewberries and one Chinese quince.

I came near denying myself flowers altogether, knowing how lightly Rupert esteemed them. But just then a vein of self-assertion cropped out, and saying, "If I have all the labor I will also have some of the gratification," I deliberately set down White Swanley violets, double purple ditto, Excelsior pansies, evening primroses, rose-bud poppies, lilies of the valley, sweet peas, candle cactus, mignonette, etc.

Was it a wonder that Rupert, long-suffering though he is, looked black ? But neither of us spoke ; we have petted the two. bears, "bear" and "forbear," ever since we became a family of two, and we never have words between us.

Our garden plot consists of a lovely patch of coarse, yellow building sand, part of a vein that is fifteen feet deep, I am told, and, as I can testify, with but six inches of mould by way of coverlid.

I had sense enough to know that ordinary enriching would not supply the deficiencies of such land, but a lucky "adv." from dear, old Boston-town (precious hub of the universe 1 autocratic town of the Americas ! what should we do without thee - to what demand art thou not equal !) promised a lawn-dressing and garden fertilizer which claimed to produce a rich growth of grass on pure sand, and to furnish plant-food for vegetables on the most unlikely soil, besides being clean, odorless, pleasant to handle, free from weed-seed, insect-larvae, death to fleas, worms, grass-hoppers, caterpillars, bugs and moths. In short, desirable from every possible point of view; and, to cap the climax, delivered at your very door absolutely free of charge.

Surely here was the chance of a lifetime for an amateur horticulturist! Thankful that there was neither use nor need of consulting Rupert, I quietly ordered a quantity sufficient to make lawn and garden the envy of all beholders, and mailed my letters, rejoicing thereat.

With gratifying promptitude the orders were acknowledged, and promise given of speedy sending of the goods. I have ceased talking to Rupert, but I sometimes think aloud, and so it came to pass that one day he overheard me say : "If I don't know anything about out-door work, I still shall have a garden which will be a credit to me. So much for keeping posted and abreast with the times !"

Snow was on the ground when I ordered my sinews of work ; but winter had given place to spring, and summer was at the door, before my seeds came - but no fertilizer!

I promptly sallied forth to find a man with a horse to plough my 2 x 4-rod garden.

After long search I found two inseparables (one could not come without the other 1) - and their team, making four ; who charged by the hour for their several selves. The quartette were fairly occupied, as the horses and one man ploughed, while the other man diligently helped and ordered, and both men talked pleasantly ; filling in the time to their mutual satisfaction, so that I had no idle moments to pay for. True, one man and one horse would have answered my purpose full as well, for the soil was light - and they would have cost less - but in view of the results, which were so certain, the extra expense became a small matter and was paid without demur.

Heavy showers had prevented the men from doing all I wanted them to do, so I the next morning rose at four and amused myself by laying out the beds and planting my seed; a pastime which occupied me till 1 P. M.. necessitating a hurried breakfast and a cold dinner. But Rupert, with characteristic amiability, did not complain, and I was recompensed by the thought of work well done - albeit unaccustomed toil.

The only damper to my light-heartedness was the fact that the fertilizer which was to be the specific for all the natural draw-backs of the soil had not arrived, and consequently could not be worked in prior to seeding. Moreover, my plants had not come.

Our garden Rupert's and mine - I am not a strong-minded woman, dear reader, if I have grown brown and horny-handed from toil such as American ladies are rarely called upon to perform - our garden lies on a sunny (very sunny) western slope. The drainage is unsurpassed ; and I facilitated it still more by running my beds from east to west, leaving the most charming path-gutters, or ditches, between them. Hence the next night when one of our Michigan deluges fell, Rupert heard me gently murmuring in my sleep the query as to whether it might not have been wise to have had our lot terraced, so as to have had both yard and garden level ground.

And daylight proved the correctness of my thought, as on prospecting in the morning the neatly laid-out garden was found to have become a series of longitudinal stream beds with only slight dividing ridges, which bore small resemblance to the original sightly beds.

I bad not much appetite for breakfast that day; still I sang at my work as usual.

The few seeds that were not washed out did their prettiest, as it was fine growing weather. But after a few days the brave young plants began mysteriously to disappear, leaving only gaping boles to show where they had been. Sorely perplexed, I scrutinized my poor garden until I found out the cause. Nimble black fleas and sage-green catapillars, with frisky grasshoppers, devoured them root and all, while a still more disgusting depredator in the shape of a black and green striped worm an inch and a half long and half an inch thick, foraged on the tender roots of the tomatoes, cutting them off by wholesale.

Ashes suggested themselves as the likeliest remedy. But, alas! gasoline stoves furnished none, and winter refuse had been removed long, long ago, Ah! happy thought, why not try my fertilizer ? It had arrived at last, though not free of charge, nor yet grumbling on the part of the man who brought it, and who actually forced me, a woman, to carry it in doors, for "fear lest handling it might hurt his hands !" I think he must he related to my indolent Rupert.

Yes, doubtless by sprinkling it on the once shapely beds I should be able at one and the same time to enrich the soil and destroy all insect life. So with a fresh accession of courage I sallied forth to make war against my lowly foes, armed with a pailful of the promising stuff, and a tin dredging box by means of which I impartially peppered my entire domain.

The asparagus, chicory, Tomhannock lettuce, salsify, round-leafed spinach, egg-plant, White Velvet okra and radish-onions on which I had especially set my heart, entirely failed me ; but the peas had come up fairly. I had two summer squashes, lonely occupants of two long beds ; no Hubbard's; a few radishes; no rhubarb; some mustard, and a few hills of corn. Well, I doctored them faithfully. At sundown I paid another visit of inspection, and found them all dead; scorched as if by fire !

It is uncertain whether I shall have courage enough to try again next year. I talk of seeding down the entire lot to grass in the fall, and planting a few trees * maybe they will live.

My flower seeds shared the same fate as the vegetables. Only candytuft and balsam, for which I cared least, came up. Of the fruits for which I sent, only one Russian mulberry and a tiny tree blackberry came, the last only living long enough to die, their supply of the rest having been exhausted before my turn came.

I think I could bear it better if Rupert cared. But I do not get a particle of sympathy from him. He persists in posing on top of my Magee heater, endeavoring to play that everlasting flute of his, with the most apathetic, indifferent expression on bis well-bronzed face. It is too bad !