MY GARDEN

By

Lavender Marie Bernhardt

Copyright July 20, 2000

The year is 1856

I was sitting in my garden on my wooden bench.
An elderly gentleman passed by my gate, stopped
and tipped his hat and said,
"Good afternoon young lady
what a beautiful garden you have."

I replied, "Thank you kind sir. How nice of you to notice."
He tipped his hat again and said,
"May I come in and look at your garden?"
I said, "You may come in kind sir and look at my garden."
I opened the gate for him.
He looked at all the flowers and shrubs.
I said, "Kind sir, would you like a spot of tea?"
He replied, "Thank you young lady. Do you have any crumpets to go with the tea?"
I replied, "Yes I do. I will bring them when I come out.
Please sit down in shade and I will serve you."
As the afternoon wore on we talked about the different kinds of flowers
I had planted and noticed how they were arranged.
We talked about our lives and how I was married just one year.
He had tears his in his eyes. His sweetheart of sixty years
had just passed away and he was alone.
He was passing by and saw me sitting in my garden.
He just had to see the flowers before going home to a lonely house.
As evening was approaching, I asked him
if he would like to stay and have dinner with us. He kindly said, "My daughter is making dinner for me."
He stood up and put his hat on and headed out the gate.
He tipped his hat once more to me and said,
"Thank you young lady for the spot of tea and crumpets
and a look at your garden. I would love to see it again." I said,
"Kind sir, you're more than welcome to come here anytime.
You may even plant some flowers if you would like. He tipped his hat once for the last time and said,
"Good night. Till we meet again."