Mrs. Pierce gave her little son a place for a garden, which the gardener used to dig up for him. She gave him different seeds of plants and flowers. She bought him a shovel, a rake and a hoe, of a suitable size for a little boy. Here he used to amuse himself for hours. He had one tree in his garden which would not thrive, though he had bestowed much labour upon it, but finally he determined to remove it. Indeed the branches were many of them dead. He told his mother he was reminded of the passage in Luke xiii. 6, 9, for he had waited long for fruit, but found none, and he was going to remove the worthless tree.
On a pleasant afternoon, it was very delightful to walk in Mrs. Pierce's garden. Orrin's garden spot was as neat and in quite as good order as his mother's. The roses were so fragrant, and the various colours of the numerous flowers so pleasing to the eye, that all admired who beheld them. The butterflies roamed from flower to flower undisturbed: the humming-birds and bees took their portion of the sweets, and pretty singing birds fluttered among the branches. Mrs. Pierce used often to point to the beautiful lilies, and say to Orrin, "Consider the lilies, how they grow, and remember the instruction they give."
