"Just look and see," replied Martha: "look at one of the first chapters of Genesis."

"Oh! I know now," exclaimed James.

"It says,

The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

"Well," said Martha, "don't you think Adam and Eve found enough to do to keep such a great garden in order? Only think how much there is to be done in our little one."

"Oh! yes;" said James. "I never thought of that before. I should think it would have been enough to keep the weeds out of such a great garden as Eden was. ""

"Are you sure there were any weeds in it," asked Martha.

Why, I suppose there are weeds in every garden," replied James.

66 Well, I don't know but there might have been weeds in Eden; but I was just thinking, there were probably no very troublesome ones such as we have now; thorns and thistles, and some running weeds for example."

"Why, what makes you suppose that?" asked Ellen.

"Something that there is in the Bible," answered Martha. "Let me see if either of you can think." "I can't think of any thing," said Ellen.

"Nor I," said James.

“Well, see if you can find out by reading. I will look too, if you will hand me that Bible that lies by you."

"It doesn't say any thing about it," said Ellen, after they had looked a few minutes. "It only says there was every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food."

"Adam didn't have any thing to do with watering his garden it seems," remarked James; "for it says that a river went out of it to water it. I don't see how that was."

"Why,” said Ellen, “perhaps it means that the river was where Adam obtained his water for his garden; don't you suppose it does, Martha ?".

"I never thought any thing about it before," replied Martha; "but I should rather think it was meant that the river itself watered the ground; I don't know exactly how, though. But you know in some countries the ground is watered altogether by rivers, as there is no rain as we have."

"The river Nile waters Egypt you know, Mar tha," said Ellen, "by overflowing its banks. But I should think that would be a trouble. It must make the ground very wet.”

"Well, I never thought much about it," said Martha. "But I suppose we can find out about it. We will look in the large geography to-morrow, or we can ask about it some time, at school."

"Did you say, Ellen, that there were some countries where it never rains?" asked James, "Why, how do they get rain water ?”.

'They don't need rain water," replied Ellen, "if they can have a plenty of other water. People in the country, you know, in most places, have soft water from their wells. Ours happens to be hard; but, you know, Mr. Grafton's is soft."

"What makes the difference?" asked James.

"Perhaps we ought not to talk about that Sunday night. I will tell you what I know about it some other time. You know we are finding out now what Adam had to do in his garden."

"About his having any very troublesome weeds to

clear away," said Ellen. "Why, can't you tell us what makes you think there were no thorns or thistles. I am sure it doesn't say any thing about it in the description of the garden."

"Well, now look farther along till you find where Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden after their sin."

"Oh! now I understand it," said James, who had been looking in the next chapter. "It says, "I will curse the ground for thy sake, and thorns and thistles also shall it bring forth to thee.' So, that shows that there were none before."

"Yes," said Martha, "that was what I meant. And I believe it is a general opinion that there was nothing to annoy or give inconvenience in the garden. We hear sometimes of roses without thorns; so if there were roses in Eden, we are to suppose they were without thorns. There were no poisonous plants springing up; and nothing to blight or kill those that were fair. Every thing was beautiful to look at, or good to eat, or pleasant to the smell.”

“How delightful it must have seemed," said James. "But what would Adam have to do if there was no watering or weeding to do ?"

"Oh! there are a great many things to do in a garden besides watering and weeding. There are trees to be pruned-dead leaves to be taken offslender twigs to be propped up, and a great many things."

'Why," said James, "I always thought as Ellen did, that they had nothing to do but to walk about and look at the things, and smell the flowers."

"But," replied Martha, "that would be a very miserable life to lead. Adam and Eve we suppose to have been perfectly happy before they eat the for

bidden fruit; but that couldn't have been if they had nothing to do."

"Why,” said James, “I should think they would have had a beautiful time; I am sure I should like to be in such a garden without any thing to do. I shouldn't want any thing to do but to look at so many trees and flowers."

"Oh! yes you would," said Martha.

"If we

were to put you into the most delightful garden that could be thought of, you would soon be tired of staying, if you hadn't your whittling knife with you, or your books or something."

"I thought when we went to see the Botanical gardens," replied James, "that I should like to stay there all day; I couldn't bear to come away."

"Well,” said Martha, "you would have liked to stay until you had seen all there was to be seen; but, after that, you would be tired of the same things. Let us shut you up for a week there and let you have nothing to do but enjoy the garden, and I suspect you would be glad enough to come out. We like to go out into our little garden once in a while and look at our flowers and bushes,-but we shouldn't like to stand a whole day looking at them."

"And there is another thing, Martha,” said Ellen: "you know we always like best to be doing something to the plants when we go out. You are always trying to find a dead leaf upon your geranium that you value so much, and to count the new ones that have come out, and to dig up the ground about the root."

"Well; and come to think of it," said James, "I had rather be fixing my bed than to look at any of your flowers or stumps. Father told me I might have that place down by the rose-bushes for mine;

don't you tread on it either of you, before I get it fixed. I am going to put a border round it."

"Hadn't you better let father fix it for you, James," asked Ellen; "he can do it a good deal better than you can."

No," ," said James, "I can fix it well enough, and I had rather do it myself."

"Oh !" that is just what I asked you for," said Ellen, laughing, "to see if you wouldn't say you wanted to do it yourself. That just shows that what Martha says is true, that we should find it pleasantest to have something to do if we were in a garden."

"Yes," said Martha, "and there is my poor geranium that you laugh so much about, I value that more than any other we have got, I have taken so much pains with it, and it was such a miserable looking thing when I first put it into the pot. I think more of a new leaf that comes out upon that than of a whole branch that comes out upon any of the others."

“So I suppose," said Ellen, "that in the garden of Eden there were plants that needed care, just as ours do. They had enough to do then."

"Yes," said Martha, "we may be quite sure they had employment, for nobody was ever happy yet, with nothing to do."

"I always thought," said James, "that if I was a man I should like to be very rich so as not to be obliged to do any work."

"You might like to be excused from doing some things," replied Martha; "but I don't think you would find it pleasant to be entirely idle very often, any more than you do now. You might have been idle this evening if you had wished it very much, in