"The sun and sky,. The elements and seasons, as they change, Do find a worthy fellow-labourer there - Man free, man working for himself, with choice Of time, and place, and object."

Wordsworth.

No doubt that work is a luxury, and a very great one. It is.-indeed at once a luxury and a necessity; no man can retain either health of mind or body without it." - Ruskin.

THERE is said to be in most Scotchmen a strong desire to possess a bit of land, however small, and certainly this pleasure of possession does not depend alone upon the extent of ground; on the contrary, I am disposed to think that more pleasure is derived from small properties than from large ones, and that as much interest and enjoyment may be got from a small spot of ground as from an estate of many hundred acres. The possessor of a large property-has duties, cares, responsibilities, and anxieties, which are unknown to the humble proprietor of a few acres; besides, he cannot take the personal charge and oversight of his estates in the way necessary to secure enjoyment: he must employ and depend upon others - land-stewards, foresters, and gardeners; and it will generally be found that far greater pleasure is derived from what we do ourselves than from what others do for us. This rule applies especially to gardening; no fruit, vegetables, or flowers seem half so fine as those we have planted and cultivated ourselves. The actual labour required soon becomes pleasant; and, till it has been tried, no one can tell the delight we take in watching and waiting for the effects of the work of our own hands.

" I love my garden well

And find employment there; Employment sweet, for many an hour, In tending every shrub and flower

With still unwearied care."

It is not to be denied that there is great satisfaction to be derived from the skilful labours of others, and much gratification obtained by having a regular gardener; but let those who have gardens, and yet cannot afford this luxury, comfort themselves by the thought that the actual enjoyment of gardening, as of most other pursuits, is greater in proportion to the pains we have personally taken in it.

The love of work for work's sake is not common, but something resembling this is undoubtedly one of the sources of much healthy enjoyment. Shew me a person who does like work, of whatever nature, mental or mechanical, who puts his heart and his mind into it, and who is not satisfied unless he has done it as well as he can, and I will shew you a happy man.

So, among the many advantages a garden brings with it the gratification of this healthy love of work is not the least; where this love is not, the sooner it is acquired the better and few pursuits help on the acquisition so well as gardening. If it extends from this pleasant occupation to more serious and naturally irksome work, so much the better. The same rule applies to dull, dry, uninteresting work of every kind. The true plan for making it pleasant is to endeavour to do it (whatever it is) as perfectly as possible. No one was ever yet interested in work who did it any any way; for not only is the result of such careless labour most unsatisfactory, so that it is often labour lost, but the work itself is insufferably tedious. But set to with a will, resolve and endeavour to do it neatly and completely, to make your work look well, to make it finished work, and, whether you will or not, you will feel an interest in it while doing it, and a pleasure in contemplating it when done, utterly unknown to the slovenly worker.

"In all labour there is profit." It may be added, that in almost all labour there may be pleasure, if we do it well and are not overtasked, for then, alas, Labour dire it is and weary woe."

There is a certain charm to most people in the mechanical part of their work; they like doing it, they cannot tell why, even where it is so purely mechanical as to leave the mind free to follow its own fancies. The fingers seem to feel pleasure in being employed, and no one who has ever tried the experiment can deny the fact, that, when suffering under anxiety, ay, or even in sorrow, they have found more relief of mind from some work of the hand than they could derive from attempts to occupy and employ the mind. Any gardening work takes a high rank among the efficacious means of soothing and occupying a harassed mind; and it would be ungrateful indeed to Him who "gives us all things richly to enjoy," not to acknowledge His goodness in thus making work so often an alleviation of our cares, and also in granting us the means of recreation and relief that such pleasant labour confers. I have rambled off from the subject of our garden to the delights of hearty work, but I will allow myself the pleasure of an extract ere I return to my subject.

"Yes, we should all have our work to do; work of some kind. I do not look upon him as an object of compassion who finds it in hard manual labour, so long as the frame is not overtasked, and springs after rest with renewed vigour to its toil. Hard labour is a source of more pleasure in a great city, in a single day, than all which goes by the especial name of pleasure throughout the year. We must all have our task. We are wretched without it." *

It is no small advantage, in this changeable climate,of a love of garden work, that we are thereby frequently able to enjoy wet weather. Either there is some transplanting to be clone, or some seeds have been sown, or some turf has been laid down; and a dull, drizzling day, or a hearty soaking shower, is welcomed and rejoiced in, with a zest unknown to those who are for ever grumbling at our capricious climate. There is first the enjoying, at the open window, of that most delightful of summer sounds, the pattering of rain-drops upon the leaves of the trees; then comes the eager delight of hastening out after the shower has ceased, and finding that, even in a few hours, some tiny seeds will have sprung up, while every bush and flower is looking so fresh, and smiling so fragrantly.