So it is with vulgar natures:

Use them kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,

And the rogues obey you well.'”

"No, I never heard them before. I see that the nettle has many uses, and I dare say that the verses are true."

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Every thing that the hand of the Almighty has formed has a use; animals, trees, plants, and weeds. But I must leave the garden now, to get some radish seed, of a good sort, that has been promised me. Telling you about the country takes me back to the time when I lived at the Grange; and I can fancy that I hear William the wagoner smacking his whip this very moment, and crying out, Gee! gee! Blackbird! Come hither; woa, Whitefoot" as loud as he can call."

"OH! here you are at last," said Maurice, as he came into the garden for the fourth time. "Three times have I been to look for you, Michael, and all in vain. I was afraid that you would not be at work again to-day. How fresh and sweet the ground turns up!"

"It does; and to my mind an hour or two's

digging, with a gentle breeze from the south, keeping you moderately cool, is quite as good medicine as any in the shop of the doctor. And then it has this advantage, he that digs gets money, while he that takes physic spends it."

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"Very true. If all men were gardeners, the doctor would not have so many patients as he has."

"I dare say not. It has often struck me that when it pleased God to sentence man to get his bread by the sweat of his brow, he mingled mercy with judgment; but we are more apt to think of the labour than of the health it bestows. The great secret of getting good from everything is to see the hand of the Lord in everything. If it be a trouble, this reconciles us to it; and if it be a pleasure, it makes it ten times the sweeter."

“That must be true. August is a hot month; what flowers are in the fields and hedges then?"

"Foxglove, toadflax, and wild geraniums, are still seen in profusion, with numberless other field flowers. The burdock and meadow rue, the ploughman's spikenard, meadow saffron, and fumatory, are in bloom; the pale blue flowers of the common flax are abundant, and the pond-weeds and knot-grass adorn the roads and ditches; while the clematis and jessamine breathe their perfume from the cottage walls, and the mountain ash still displays

his red berries in the sun. Hollyhocks, mallows, golden-stars, Michaelmas daisies, and balsams are in the garden.

The gaudy sunflower, bright and gay,

Shines in the noontide beam;
And floating water lilies play
Upon the rippling stream;
Or borne upon its rapid tide,

Like swans upon its surface glide.

"Many of the flowers, as well as of the animals, birds, reptiles, and insects that I describe as being seen in one month may be seen in another. Mine is a very general account, and as such you must make allowances."

"I think it is a capital account, and hundreds of young people would be very glad to hear it. Is the cuckoo heard in August?"

"Yes; but he soon sets off for the south, where he can suck eggs and cry cuckoo in a warmer clime. There is another bird, however, that cries out as loudly as the cuckoo, and that is the woodowl, though his note is not quite so musical. One of the goodliest objects that can be seen in the country in August is, without doubt, the golden crops of grain, either waving in the sunny fields, or standing up in sheaves and shocks, ready to be carried into the garner. In August the Father of mercies 'openeth his hand, and supplieth all

things living with plenteousness.'

It is then

that the grain, which the farmer gave to the furrow, is given back again to him fifty and a hundred fold.

'Now waving o'er the yellow field
The bending ears their load sustain,
And to the reaper's sickle yield
Their cluster'd stores of golden grain :
Thus patient labour shall succeed,
And find its reaping season come;
Who sow with tears the precious seed,

Shall shout with joy the harvest home.'

"Farmers ought to be among the most humble and the most thankful people in the world, seeing that they are so dependent on God's goodness in sending the shower and the shine in proper season, and fit weather to gather in the crops."

"What butterflies are there in August?"

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Plenty, of different kinds, and almost all that there were in July. Insects, too, are as numerous as ever-flies, lady-birds, ants, wasps, bees, and hornets. The field-mouse has young ones, the toad croaks, the frog hides himself under the broad leaves."

"And what does the gardener do in August?” "He finishes up what he could not do in the last month, in the hoeing, raking, and border