Charles, William, and Henry, had a large piece of ground given to them
to make a garden of. Their papa gave them leave to apply to the gardener
for instruction as often as they pleased, but not to expect any
assistance from him or any other person: they were to put it in order,
and keep it so by their own labour.
"I know," said Charles to William, "that we shall never agree with
Henry; he is such an odd boy, that I really believe when once the garden
is put in order, he will be contented to walk about and look at it,
without ever touching any thing, for he is always quarrelling with us
because we have no patience, as he calls it."--"Yes," replied William,
"it is very true. Do you remember how angry he was when his bantam hen
was hatching her chickens, and we helped to pull them out of the eggs!
Who would have thought we should have killed any of them! I am sure I
did not; but they were so long, I could not bear to sit there all day
waiting for them. I think, Charles, we had better give him his share of
the ground, and let him do as he will with it, and you and I will make a
pretty garden of the rest, and manage it as we think proper."
This being settled, and the ground fairly divided, they all three went
to work with the utmost alacrity. They rose with the lark in the
morning, turning up the earth, and clearing it of stones and rubbish;
but Henry by himself had got his garden laid out in beds and borders,
ready for planting, before Charles and William together had half done
theirs: they could not determine how to do it; the borders were too
narrow, and must be made broader; this bed must be longer, and that
shorter; so that what they did in the morning, they undid in the
evening, and their piece of ground lay in confusion and disorder, long
after Henry had planted his borders with strawberries, and his beds
were sown with annuals, and filled with pretty flowers and bulbous
roots.
Charles and William had at length got their garden laid out in tolerable
order, and, in other hands, it might soon have been in a very
flourishing state; for their papa had given them leave to remove several
pretty shrubs from his into their garden, and consequently it already
wore a pleasant appearance. Two days had, however, scarcely elapsed,
before these whimsical boys were tired of the manner in which their
tree, &c. were planted, and longed to remove them.
"This little cherry-tree," said William, "will surely look better at the
corner of the wall."
"That it will," answered Charles, "and will grow better there, I dare
say; and the rose-trees, do observe how ill they appear at the end of
that border--who would ever have thought of planting rose-trees in such
a place?"
"Nobody," said Charles, "and we had better change them directly, or it
will be supposed we know nothing of gardening, and we shall be laughed
at for pretending to it."
No sooner said than done; the plants and flowers were removed, and, in
about a week from that day, were all put back into their former places.
When their seeds were just beginning to appear above the ground, they
fancied that bed would do better for something else, and in less than
five minutes the spade was brought, the bed turned up, and all the
little flowers, which were springing up so strong and promising, were
destroyed without pity.
What a different appearance did the two gardens make in the month of
June! Charles and William saw, with sorrow and regret, that theirs was
nothing more than a piece of waste ground; they had removed their trees
and shrubs so often, that they had all perished; and not having patience
to let their seeds come up and grow into blossom, their beds had nothing
in them.
Henry's garden was beautiful; there was not the smallest bit of it but
had some pretty flower or fruit-tree growing in it: every part was
blooming and sweet; and his two brothers discovered, when too late, that
without perseverance and steadiness, nothing can be accomplished, and
that unless they came to a determination to follow the good example
their brother Henry set before them on this occasion, as on all others,
their minds would, like their garden, be uncultivated and waste.