acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

52 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
brought with them from Entrhsh homes the love of a
garden for itself, and patient care in the tending.
They sowed grass round the wide-basoned fountain
in the hospital courtyard, and called the yard ** the
lawn " —a fugitive, kittle thing in this land of hot sun
and scanty rain—and imported a lawn-mower, and
with a little mowing and a vast deal of assiduous
watering, were able to speak of " the lawn" truthfully,
though not without a touch of imagination still being
necessary. But the climate though hard on grass,
prospers other garden growths if water is applied, and
water being available, a pleasant garden resulted.
The first nurse made a walk under the mulberrytrees,
and bordered it with tall Easter lilies, which
flourished, as did her roses ; and the violets she
planted under the trees grew and spread like weeds.
Succeeding nurses carried on the work, and made
beds of annuals that blossomed brightly ; and now
the hospital garden, with its grass, and splashing
fountain, and shady walk, and gay flowers, is a spot
where patients, all unused to surroundings of this
kind, sit and rest and find themselves growing well.
As aid to the Mission hospital the garden is an influence
not easy to overrate. It creates an atmosphere
affecting all patients ; they come and not only are
healed, but carry away vivid and pleasant recollections
which they convey to others, and thus disarm
prejudice and hostility. The whole compound, in fact,
with its cheerful gardens and dwellings, its cleanliness,
order, and happiness, is a most powerful silent
agency of the same kind. It provides a standing and
surprising contrast which fails to strike no one who
sets foot within the gates. You pass at a step from
squalor and pools of filth in narrow alleys to the
bright compound, and seem to have got into another
world.
Doing this again and again a curious impression
grows upon you. It is that the compound is a walled
village of another race, established in these surroundings
by some unexplained cause. And a walled