Issuu

PRIVATE OF

CHARLES

XOFOID. Cost.

GIFT OF

MY SUMMER IN

A GARDEN.

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.

BOSTON:

JAMES

OSGOOD

CO.,

LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSdOOD, & CO.

I87I.

in the year 1870, Entered, according to Act of Congress,

BY FIELDS, OSGOOD, &

CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Rand, Avcry,

& Frtjc,

Stercotyj&gt;ers

and

Printers, Boston.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

DEAR MR.

ise to

but an Introduction,

;

a sort of pilaster, put upon the

is it ?

face of a building for look s sake, flat,

very

prom

write an Introduction to these

charming papers

what

I did

FIELDS,

flat.

a caryatid, which

Sometimes is,

and usually

may be

as I understand

it,

device of architecture, representing a

called

a cru,el

man

his or her

obliged to hold

woman, up upon head or shoulders a structure which they did a

not build, and which could stand just as well without as with them. But an Introduction is

more apt

be a

pillar,

in Baalbec, standing

with nothing on

it,

such as one

may see

in the air all alone,

up and with nothing

for

to do.

But an Introductory Letter

different.

is iii

247482

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

There

in that

no formality, no assumption

awkward

of function, no to be sustained.

propriety or dignity

A letter at

the opening of

a book

may be only a footpath, leading the curious to a favorable point of observation,

and then leaving them

to wander as they will. been have sent to Sluggards the^ant for wisdom but writers might better be sent to ;

the spider,

not because he works

and watches

all

unconsciously.

work before hind him, as

all

night,

day, but because he works He dare not even bring his

own eyes, but keeps it be too much knowledge of what

his if

doing would spoil the delicacy and modesty of one s work.

one

Almost

all

graceful and fanciful

work

born like a dream, that comes noiselessly, and tarries silently, and goes as a bubble bursts.

And

yet somewhere

real,

well-considered work.

work must come

in,

Inness (the best American painter of ture in her

once

said,

moods

No man

real

human

feeling)

can do any thing in

unless he has intuitions

;

but,

Na art,

between whiles,

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

ono must work hard in collecting the materials The out of which intuitions are made."

Knowl

truth could not be hit off better.

edge

the

soil,

and

intuitions are the flowers

which grow up out of it. The well enriched and worked.

must be

soil

very plain, or will be to those

It is

read these papers,

now

who

into this

gathered up

book, as into a chariot for a race, that the

author has long employed his eyes, his ears, and his understanding, in observing and con sidering the facts of Nature,

the

oldest

newspapers in New fill its columns day

daily

England, and obliged after

day (as the its

enjoy

enough tions

;

Why

market

politics,

enough

;

sacks of flour or

lies

naturally

not write something

myself, as well as

The

many

hungry customers),

occurred to him,

which

village mill is obliged to

render every day so of meal to

weaving an of one editor Being

curious analogies. of

and

my -readers, them

gives

enough

;

art,

shall

facts

affecta

criminal news, horrors enough

;

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

x fashion, more than enough of vanity upon vanity, and vexation of purse. Why should

they not have some of those wandering and joyous fancies which solace my hours ? "

The

suggestion

Men and women

ripened

into

execution.

and wanted more.

read,

These garden letters began to blossom every week and many hands were glad to gather A sign it was of wis pleasure from them. ;

dom.

In our feverish days, it is a sign of health or of convalescence that men love

gentle pleasure, and enjoyments that do not

rush or roar, but

The

the dew.

distil as

love of rural

life,

the habit of finding

enjoyment in familiar things, that suscepti bility to

Nature which keeps the nerve gently nooks and by her

thrilled in her homeliest

commonest sounds,

tunes of money, or

its

worth a thousand

for

equivalents.

Every book which interprets the secret lore of fields and gardens, every essay that brings

men

nearer to the understanding of the

teries

mys

which every tree whispers, every brook

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

Vll

murmurs, every weed, even, hints, is a con tribution to the wealth and the happiness of our kind.

And

the lines of the writer

shall be traced in quaint characters,

and be

with a grave humor, or break out at times into merriment, all this will be no pre

filled

sumption against their wisdom or his good ness. Is the oak less strong and tough because the mosses and weather-stains stick -

manner of grotesque sketches along its bark ? Now, truly, one may not learn from this little book either divinity or horticulture in all

;

he gets a pure happiness, and a ten dency to repeat the happiness from the sim ple stores of Nature, he will gain from our

.but if

friend s garden

what

Adam

lost in his,

what neither philosophy nor

and

divinity has

always been able to restore.

Wherefore, thanking you for listening to a

which begged you to consider whether these curious and ingenious papers,

former

letter,

that go winding about like

a half-trodden

path between the garden and the

field,

might

Vlii

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

not be given in book-form to your million readers,

remain,

yours

command

every thing but the writing of an Introduc tion,

WARD

BEECIIEB.

WAY

OF DEDICATION.

DEAR POLLY,

When

a few of

these papers had appeared in Courant,"

was

encouraged

them by hearing that they had who read them with the

reader

from which alone

profit

"The

continue

at least

serious

one

mind

to be expected.

was a maiden lady, who, I am sure, was no more to blame for her singleness than for her It

age

;

and she looked

to these honest sketches

of experience for that aid which the profes sional agricultural papers could not give in

the

management of the little bit of garden which she called her own. She may have been my only disciple and I confess that the ;

thought of her yielding

a simple faith to

what a gainsaying world may have regarded with levity has contributed

much

to give

BY WAY OF DEDICATION.

increased practical turn to

what

that I

know about

lady,

The thought

gardening.

had misled a

reports

whose age

not

her only singularity, who looked to me for advice which should be not at all the fanciful

product of the Garden of Gull, would give me great pain. I trust that her autumn is a peaceful one, and undisturbed by either the

humorous

or the satirical side of Nature.

You know

that this attempt to

tell

the

truth about one of the most fascinating occu pations in the world has not been without its

have

dangers.

letters.

Some

spelled;

others

received anonymous them were murderously were missives in such

elegant phrase and dress, that danger

only to be apprehended in them

was

by one

skilled in the mysteries of mediaeval poison

when death flew on the wings of a perfume. One lady, whose entreaty that I should pause had something of command in ing,

it,

wrote that

so inflamed her

strictures

husband

pusley

had

zeal, that, in her

absence in the country, he had rooted up

all

BY WAY OF DEDICATION.

her beds of portulaca (a sort of cousin of the fat

weed), and utterly cast

however,

would

justice

out.

be expected, that

visit

is,

retributive

the innocent as well as

the guilty of an offending family.

This

only another proof of the wide sweep of moral forces. I suppose that it is as neces sary in the vegetable world as

it is

elsewhere

to avoid the appearance of evil.

In offering you the fruit of my garden, which has been gathered from week to week,

without the

much

crops

reference to the progress of

the

drought,

desire

acknowledge an influence which has lent half the charm to my labor. If I were in a court of justice, or injustice, under oath, I should

not like to say, that either in the wooing days of spring, or under the suns of the summer solstioe,

you had been,

either with hoe, rake,

or miniature spade, of the least use in the

but your suggestions have been in valuable, and, whenever used, have been paid

garden

for.

;

Your

horticultural inquiries have been

of a nature to astonish the vegetable world,

BY WAY OF DEDICATION.

Xll

if it listened,

to research.

and were a constant inspiration There was almost nothing that

you did not wish to know and this, added to what I wished to know, made a boundless ;

What might have

field for discovery.

come of the garden

followed, a good Providence only I never

that

your advice had been

knows

;

but

worked there without a consciousness

you might

any moment come down

the walk, under the grape-arbor, bestowing glances of

that were

approval,

worse for not being dening into a that

critical

was

Nature

;

fine art

;

the

exercising a

that elevated

of superintendence

sort

none

gar

expressing a wonder

complimentary to me as it was to bringing an atmosphere which made

the garden a region of romance, the soil of

which was unseen. filled

was

this

the garden, as

light,

play

set apart for fruits native to climes

bright presence that

did the summer, with

and now leaves upon it that tender color and bloom which is called

among

the Alps the afterglow.

NOOK FARM, HARTFORD,

October, 1870.

r&gt;.

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

PRELIMINARY.

rriHE -*-

love of dirt

of passions, as

among

it is

the latest.

pies gratify one of our first stincts.

pure.

the earliest

Mud-

and best in

So long as we are dirty, we are Fondness for the ground comes

back to a

man

after

he has run the

round of pleasure and business, eaten dirt, and sown wild-oats, drifted about the world, and taken the wind of

moods.

The

love

all its

digging in the ground (or of looking on while he pays another to dig) is as sure to come back to him, as

sure, at last, to

go under

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

To own a the ground, and stay there. bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds,

and watch their renewal

this is the

life,

commonest delight

of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do. When Cicero writes of the pleasures of old age, that of agriculture is

chief

among them

Venio nunc ad

agricolarum, quibus ego incredibiliter detector: quce nee ulla im-

voluptates

pediunter senectute, et mihi ad sapientis vitam proxime videntur accedere" (I

driven to Latin because

New- York

have exhausted the English lan guage in the praising of spring, and es editors

month of May.) Let us celebrate the soil. Most men toil that they may own a piece of it

pecially of the

;

they measure their success in ability to

buy

it.

life

their

alike the passion

of the parvenu and the pride of the Broad acres are a patent of aristocrat.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. nobility

man

;

and no man but the world

feels

more of

he have a bit of

ground that he can call his own. ever small it is on the surface, it thousand miles deep

and that

;

And

handsome property.

How is

four

a very there is a is

great pleasure in working in the

soil,

apart from the ownership of

The

man who

it.

has planted a garden feels that

he has done something for the good of the world. It is

cers.

belongs to the produ a pleasure to eat of the fruit

be nothing more than a head of lettuce or an ear of corn. of one

One

s toil, if it

cultivates a

lawn even with great

nothing more beautiful than grass and turf in our lati tude. The tropics may have their de satisfaction;

for there

but they have not turf: and the world without turf is a dreary desert. The original garden of Eden could not

lights;

have had such turf as one sees in Eng-

MY SUMMER

land.

IN A GARDEN.

The Teutonic

races

all

they emigrate in the line of

the mellow

dig in

moderately, for all

love turf:

its

growth. to

soil

dig

pleasure should be a great thing. One

taken sparingly is gets strength out of the ground as often as one really touches it with a hoe. Antceus (this is a classical article) was no doubt an agriculturist ; and such a prize fighter as Hercules couldn t do

any thing

he got him to lay down his It is not simply spade, and quit the soil. beets and potatoes and corn and stringwith him

till

beans that one raises in his well-hoed

garden There is

it is

life

the seeds

;

the average of

in the

and

ground

it also,

up, goes into the

;

when

man who

human it

life.

goes into

it is

stirs

it.

stirred

The

hot sun on his back as he bends to

and hoe, or contemplatively rakes the warm and fragrant loam, is

his shovel

better than

much

medicine.

The buds

MY SUMMER are

IN A GARDEN.

coming out on the bushes round

about

;

the blossoms of the fruit-trees be

gin to show

the blood

running up the grape-vines in streams; you can smell the wild -flowers on the near bank and ;

;

the birds are flying and glancing and

To the open

singing everywhere.

kitch

en-door conies the busy housewife to shake a white something, and stands a

moment

to look, quite transfixed

delightful sights

and sounds.

Hoeing

the garden on a bright, soft

when you

by the

are not obliged to,

May is

day,

nearly

equal to the delight of going trouting. Blessed be agriculture

have too much of fragrant with

At the

it,

foot of the

it.

one does not

All literature

in a gentlemanly

way.

charming olive-covered

of Tivoli, Horace (not he of Chapit was in paqua) had a sunny farm

hills

sight of Hadrian s villa,

who

did land

scape-gardening on an extensive scale,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

and probably did not get half as much comfort out of it as Horace did from liis

simply-tilled acres.

trust that

hoeing and farming himself, and that his verse is not all fraud In order to enjoy ulent sentiment.

Horace did a

little

you do not want too much of it, and you want to be poor enough to have a little inducement to work mod agriculture,

erately yourself.

Hoe while

and enjoy the best not

much matter

out well.

it is

anticipations.

spring, It

things do not turn

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GAEDENING. FIRST WEEK.

TTNDER S^

modest

title, I

purpose

to write a series of papers,

some of

which

will

this

be like

many

papers of gar

den-seeds, with nothing vital in them, on

the subject of gardening; holding that

man

has any right to keep valuable knowledge to himself, and hoping that those

who come

after

me, except tax-

gatherers and that sort of person, will find profit in the perusal of my experi ence.

constantly

likely to

be no end

will

pursue no

knowledge

increasing, there

to these papers.

They

orderly system of agriculture or horti culture, but range

from topic to

topic,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

according to the weather and the prog ress of the weeds, which may drive me

from one corner of the garden to the other.

The den

principal value of a private gar

not understood.

not to give

the possessor vegetables and fruit (that can be better and cheaper done by the

market-gardeners), but to teach him pa tience and philosophy, and the higher vir tues,

hope deferred, and expectations

blighted, leading directly to resignation,

and sometimes to

-alienation.

The gar

den thus becomes a moral agent, a test of character, as it was in the beginning. I shall in

keep

this central truth in

these articles.

mean

mind

have a

not a productive

moral garden, if it is one that shall one, brothers Bons of

The

sisters

teach,

the great

les-

life.

first

pleasant thing about a gar-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. den

in this latitude

know when you must it

you never If you want

that

going.

come

thing to

any put

to set

is,

to maturity early,

start it in a hot-house.

out early, the chances are

you

all

nipped with frost for the thermometer will be 90 one day, and go below 32 the night of the day

favor of getting

;

And, if you do not set out plants or sow seeds early, you fret con following.

knowing that your vegetables be late, and that, while Jones has

tinually will

;

early peas,

you

will be

watching your

slow-forming pods. This keeps you in a When you have planted state of mind.

any thing

early, you are doubtful

to desire to see

If a hot

whether

above ground, or not.

day comeSj you long to see the

young plants but, when a cold north wind brings frost, you tremble lest the ;

seeds

spring

have burst is

their bands.

Your

passed in anxious doubts and

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

which are usually realized and so a great moral discipline is worked out fears,

;

for you.

Now, there

two or three

corn,

inches high this ,18th of

May, and ap

parently having no fear of a

was hoeing

it this

it is

time,

morning

frost.

for the first

not well usually to hoe corn

when about the 18th of May, Polly came out to look at the Lima beans. She seemed to think the poles until

had come up

beautifully.

they did look well

thought

they are a fine set

of poles, large and well grown, and stand

They were inexpensive too. The cheapness came about from my cuting them on another man s land, and he I have not examined did not know it. straight.

this

transaction in the moral light of

gardening

;

but I know people in

this

country take great liberties at the polls. Polly noticed that the beans had not

MY SUMMER IN A

GARDEN.

themselves come up in any proper sense,

but that the dirt had got off from them, She thought leaving them uncovered. it

would be well

them

of dirt over consented.

to sprinkle a slight layer ;

and

It occurred to

indulgently,

me, when she

had gone, that beans always come up that way, wrong end first and that ;

what they wanted was

and not

light,

dirt.

Observation the

first,

make

Woman always did, from

a muss in a garden.

I inherited with

garden a large

Splendid berry patch of raspberries. the the raspberry, when strawberry has This patch has grown into such a defiant attitude, that you could not get

gone.

within several feet of

enormous in prickly,

size,

arms in

all

it.

and

Its stalks

were

out long, directions but the cast

;

I bushes were pretty much all dead. have walked into them a good deal with

MY SUMMER

a pruning-knife

;

IN A GARDEN.

but

it is

The

fighting original sin.

that I can recommend.

variety

I think

it is

one

called

Orange. It is exceedingly and has enormous stalks. The

Brinckley prolific,

very much

fruit is also said to

be good; but that

does not matter so much, as the plant does not often bear in this region. stalks

seem

The

to be biennial institutions

;

they get about their growth one year, and bear the next year, and then die, and the winters here nearly always

and

them, unless you take them into the house (which is inconvenient if you have kill

a family of small children), it is very dif ficult to induce the plant to flower and

This

fruit.

there

this

the

greatest objection

sort of raspberry.

think of keeping these for discipline, and setting out some others, more hardy sorts, for fruit.

.5v:

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

SECOND WEEK. "1VTEXT

deciding

when

start

^-^

your garden, the most important matter is, what to put in it. It is diffi cult to decide

what

on a given day pressive

is it

to order for dinner

how much more op

to order in a

lump an end

of dinners, so to speak For, unless your garden is a boundless prairie

less vista

(and mine seems to me to be that when I hoe it on hot days), you must make a selection, from the great variety of vege tables, of those

you

feel

own

table

you will rather bound

raise in it

;

and

supply your from your own garden, and to eat only as you have sown. I hold that no man has a right (what ever his sex, of course) to have

gar-

MY SUMMER

den to

his

own

IN A GARDEN.

selfish uses.

please his neighbor.

ought

man

not to please himself, but every I tried to

have a

garden that would give general moral satisfaction. It seemed to me that no

body could object useful vegetable)

them

freely.

and

began to plant But there was a chorus of ;

protest against them. to take

(the

doing

want

"You

don

want

up your ground with potatoes/

the neighbors said toes

most

to potatoes (a

you can buy pota very thing I wanted to avoid "

buying things).

"What

you

the perishable things that you cannot get fresh in the market." "But is

what kind of perishable ticulturalist of

sow

things?"

eminence wanted

lines of strawberries

right over in drills.

and raspberries

where I had put my potatoes had about five hundred straw

berry-plants in another part of

den ; but

Ahor-

this fruit-fanatic

wanted

gar

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. turn

my whole

patch into vines and run I suppose I could raise strawber

ners. ries

enough

for all

perhaps I ought to do

which

oiis,

friend.

showed

You

your ground on

They

;

and

had a

little

neighbors I

it.

space prepared for melons,

musk-mel-

to an experienced

are not going to waste

he asked.

musk-melons?"

rarely ripen in this climate thor

oughly, before

He had

frost."

years without luck.

tried for

I resolved to not

into such a foolish experiment.

But, the

next day, another neighbor happened in. Ah I see you are going to have mel "

family would rather give up

ons.

any thing

else in the

melons,

of the

garden than musk-

nutmeg

variety.

are the most grateful things

the

table."

So there

-was.

They

we have on There was

no compromise it was melons, or no melons, and somebody offended in any :

case.

I half resolved to plant

them a

MY SUMMER

little late,

wouldn

IN A GARDEN.

and they

so that they would;

But

had the same

difficulty

about string-beans (which I detest), and squash (which I tolerate), and parsnips, and the whole round of green things. I have pretty much come to the con clusion, that

down

foot ally

you have got

in gardening.

to put

your had actu

If I

taken counsel of my friends, I should

not have had a thing growing in the garden to-day but weeds. And besides, while you are waiting, Nature does not wait.

Her mind

knows just what she

made

She

up.

will raise

;

and she

has an infinite variety of early and

The most humiliating thing a garden

the lesson

inferiority of man.

late.

about

teaches of the

Nature

prompt, She thrusts up her plants with a vigor and freedom that I admire and, the more worthless the decided, inexhaustible.

;

plant, the

more rapid and splendid

its

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. She

growth. all

night

never

;

early

and

late,

and

nor showing the

tiring,

least sign of exhaustion.

Eternal gardening is the price of liberty/ is a motto that I should put "

over the gateway of

had a

gate.

true

for

;

dening.

garden

And

there

my it

yet

no liberty

The man who is

garden, if I is not wholly in

gar undertakes a

pursued.

relentlessly

when he

felicitates himself, that,

gets

once planted, he will have a season of rest

and of enjoyment

and growing of

in the sprouting

his seeds.

a green

planted a seed that will keep him awake nights ; drive

anticipation.

rest

has

from his bones, and sleep from his

Hardly is the garden planted, when he must begin to hoe it. The weeds have sprung up all 6ver it in pillow.

night.

redundant

They life.

shine

and

wave

The docks have almost

MY SUMMER IN

A GARDEN.

and their roots go deeper than conscience. Talk about the Lon

gone

to seed

don Docks

;

the roots of these are like

Aryan race. And not all. I awake in the

the sources of the

the weeds are

morning (and a thriving garden will wake a person up two hours before he ought to be out of bed), and think of the tomato-plants,

the leaves like fine

lace-work, owing to black bugs that skip

around, and can

body ought is

off,

after

up before the dew the dew stay on till

reasonable

breakfast?)

sprinkle soot on the leaves. if it is I.

Some

to get

(why don a

be caught.

Soot

much

and

wonder

blacker than

the bugs, that they are disgusted, and

go away. You can t get up too early, if you have a garden. You must be early due, yourself, if

the

whole,

bugs. it

you get ahead

think,

that,

would be best to

sit

on the

all

MY SUMMER IN night,

and

appear

sleep

go on

A GARDEN.

Things

clay-times.

in the night

the

garden uncommonly. It would be less trouble to stay up than it is to get up 30 early.

have been setting out some new a silver and a raspberries, two sorts, I

How

gold color.

they will look on

fine

the table next year in a cut-glass dish, the cream being in a ditto pitcher set

them four and

five feet apart.

I set

strawberries pretty well apart also.

The reason

is,

to give

room

for the

cows

run through when they break into A as they do sometimes. the garden,

cow needs a broader track than a

and she generally makes one. sometimes astonished to see how

motive I

loco

;

big a space in a flower-bed her foot will The raspberries are called Doocover. little

name

and Golden Cap. of the

first

don

t like

the

variety, and, if they

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

do much, shall change it to Silver Top. You never can tell what a thing named Doolittle

Senate

They rot

will

changed

sonize,

rot

-V?

;^&gt;

one

and

the

got sour.

either mildew, or

They

are apt to John-

on the stem.

the Doolittles.

&gt;-

The

color,

ripen badly,

on the bush.

v /x

do.

I shall

watch

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

THIRD WEEK.

T BELIEVE

that I have found, if not

-T- original sin, at least

vegetable total

depravity in my garden; and there before I went into it. It

was

it is

the

what bunch, or joint, or snake-grass, ever it is called. As I do not know the

names of have

name

all

to do as

the weeds and plants, I

Adam

did in his garden,

things as I find them.

has a slender, beautiful stalk

you cut of

it,

down, or pull

you fancy

This grass :

and when

up a long root

got rid of; but, in will come up in the same it is

a day or two, it spot in half a dozen vigorous blades.

Cutting it

down and

thrives

helps

it.

on.

pulling

Extermination

what rather

you follow a slender white

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. be found to run under the

root, it will

ground

until

meets another slender

white root; and you will soon unearth a network of them, with a knot some out

where, sending pointed,

dozens of sharp-

healthy

shoots, every joint an independent life and The only way to deal with it

prepared to be plant. is

to take one part

fingers,

hoe and two parts

and carefully dig

not

out,

leaving a joint anywhere. It will take a little time, say all summer, to dig out thoroughly a small patch; but if

you once dig

you

will

Here

out,

and keep

out,

have no further trouble.

have said it is.

was

total

depravity.

attempt to pull

you and root out any sin shows on the surface,

you, which

if it

does not

show, you do not care for it, you may have noticed how it runs into an interior

network of

sins,

and an ever-sprouting

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. branch of them roots somewhere

you cannot

that

;

pull out one without

making a general

internal disturbance,

and rooting up your whole being. suppose

them

and

it is less

trouble to quietly cut

off at the top,

say once a week,

on Sunday, when you put on your so that no religious clothes and face, one will see them, and not try to eradi cate the network within. This moral vegetable figure

Eemarlc. is

any clergyman who have the manliness to come forward

at the service of

will

and help potatoes.

day s hoeing on my None but the orthodox need at a

apply. I,

however, believe in the intellectual,

not the moral, qualities of vegetables, There was a and especially weeds.

worthless vine that (or who) started up

about midway between a grape-trellis

and a row of bean-poles, some three

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

feet

from each, but a

nearer the

little

When it came out of the ground,

trellis.

looked around to see what

do.

The

trellis

should

was already occupied. There was

The bean-pole was empty. evidently a light, air,

and

And

pole.

the best chance of

little

sole proprietorship

the vine

started

on the

for

the

and began to. climb it with deter mination. Here was as distinct an act pole,

of choice, of reason, as a boy exercises

when he goes

into a forest, and, looking

about, decides which tree he will climb.

And,

besides,

how

to travel

enough

did the vine

in exactly the right

direction,

three feet, to find

wanted

This

know

is intellect.

what

The weeds,

on the other hand, have hateful moral qualities.

cut

down

weed

therefore, to do a moral action.

is,

I feel

were destroying sin. My hoe becomes an instrument of retributive as if I

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

an apostle of Nature. This view of the matter lends a dignity I

justice.

to the art of hoeing

and

does, ethics.

else

the region of Hoeing becomes, not a pastime, it

lifts

but a duty. so, as

which nothing

into

And you

get to regard

the days and the weeds lengthen. Nevertheless, what

Observation.

man

needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it. The hoe is

an ingenious instrument, calculated to call

out a great deal of strength at a

great disadvantage. The striped bug has come, the saddest of

the year.

ender,

iron-clad

a moral double-

the ground so that flies

cannot catch him.

He burrows

pleasant in two ways.

him, and he

that.

you cannot

find

that

you

away

rather hand

some, as bugs go, but utterly dastardly, in that he gnaws the stem of the plant

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

close to the ground,

and ruins

without

to himself.

I any apparent advantage find him on the hills of cucumbers

(perhaps

be a cholera-year, and

will

not want any), the squashes loss), and the melons (which

shall

(small

never ripen). The best way to deal with the striped bug is to sit down by the If

hills,

you

and patiently watch

are spry,

you can annoy him.

however, takes time. day and part of the night.

This, all

flyeth in darkness, flay.

for him.

and wasteth

takes

For he at noon-

you get up before the dew

off the plants,

goes off very early, you can sprinkle soot on the plant if I can get the (soot is my panacea it

disease of a plant reduced to the neces sity of soot, I

all

right)

;

and soot

unpleasant to the bug. But the best thing to do is to set a toad to catch

the bugs.

The toad

at once establishes

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

the

most intimate relations with

the

It is a pleasure to see

bug.

it is all

diffi

make the toad stay, and If you know your toad, hill.

watch the

build

The

the lower animals.

among culty

such unity

right.

you do

not,

a tight fence round

you must

the

which the toad cannot jump over. however, introduces a

new

plants,

This,

element.

have a zoological garden on hands. It is an unexpected result

find that I

my of

little

enterprise,

which

never

aspired to the completeness of the Paris "

Jardin des

Plantes."

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

FOURTH WEEK.

ETHODOXY ia at a low ebb.

Only two clergymen accepted my offer come and help hoe my potatoes for

the

using my vegetable total-depravity figure about the snakegrass, or quack-grass as some call it; privilege

and those two did

not

bring hoes. There seems to be a lack of disposition to

hoe among our educated clergy.

am bound

to say that these two,

ever, sat and

watched

my vigorous

how com

bats with the weeds, and talked most beautifully about the application of the

As, for

snake-grass figure.

when

a fault or sin

of a man, whether

would

instance,

showed on the surface if

you dug down, you

find that it ran

back and into the

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

bunch of

original organic

sin

original

The only other clergy man who came was from out of town, a within the man.

half Universalist,

who

said

he wouldn

give twenty cents for my figure. said that the snake-grass was not in garden originally, that it sneaked

my in

under the sod, and that it could be en tirely rooted out with industry and pa tience. I asked the Universalist-inclined

man

to take

said

he hadn

hoe and try it but he time, and went away.

my t

;

But, jubilate, I have got my garden I feel as if I all hoed the first time !

had put down the

Only there

rebellion.

are guerillas left here and there, about

the

borders

dued, grass, first

your

and

Forrest docks,

unsub

corners,

and

Quantrell

and Beauregard pig-weeds.

hoeing first

trial

a gigantic

task

strength with

never-sleeping forces of Nature.

This it

the

Sev-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

was tempted who abandoned his

eral times, in its progress, I

to do as

Adam

did,

garden on account of the weeds. (How much my mind seems to run upon Adam, as if there had been only

two really moral gardens, Adam s and mine !) The only drawback to my re joicing over the finishing

hoeing

is,

of the

now wants

that the garden

hoeing. the second time.

first

I suppose, if

garden were planted in a perfect circle, and I started round it with a

hoe, I should never see an opportunity to rest.

The

fact

is,-

that gardening

the old fable of perpetual labor; I,

for one,

can never forgive

phus, or whoever

roots of discord.

was, I

self sitting at eve,

Adam

who

and Sisy

let in the

had pictured

with

family, in

the shade of twilight, contemplating a

garden hoed.

Alas

it is

be realized in this world.

dream not

MY SUMMER

My mind

IN A GARDEN.

has been turned to the sub

and shade trees in a gar

ject of fruit

There are those who say that trees shade the garden too much, and den.

interfere with the

tables.

growth of the vege There may be something in this

but when I go down the potato rows, the rays of the sun glancing upon my shining blade, the sweat pouring from

What

I should be grateful for shade.

a garden for should take

face, is

The pleasure of man. I much more pleasure in a

shady garden,

broiled, roasted,

for-

I to

sacrificed,

the sake of the in

creased vigor of a few vegetables ? The thing is perfectly absurd. If I were rich, I think I

covered with

would have an

garden

awning, so that

would be comfortable

work

it.

might roll up and be removable, as the great awning of the Roman Coliseum not like the Boston one, which was,

MY SUMMER

went

IN A GARDEN.

high wind. Another very good way to do, and probably not so ex pensive as the awning, would be to have four,

off in a

persons of foreign birth carry a canopy over you as you hoed.

sort of

And

there might be a person at eaefy

end of the row with some cool and freshing drink.

is still

in a

Agriculture barbarous I hope to live very stage. yet to see the day when I can do my

gardening, as tragedy

done, to slow

and soothing music, and attended by some of the comforts I have named. These things come so forcibly into my mind sometimes as I work, that perhaps,

when

a wandering breeze lifts my straw hat, or a bird lights on a near currantbush,

and shakes out a

summer

full-throated

song, I almost expect to

find

the cooling drink and the hospitable en

tertainment at the end of the row. I

never do.

There

But

nothing to be

MY SUMMER IN A

GARDEN.

done but to turn round, and hoe back to the other end.

Speaking

those

yellow squash-

bugs, I think I disheartened

them by

covering the plants so deep with soot and wood-ashes that they could not find

them

and

;

in doubt if I shall ever

see the plants again.

But

have heard

another defence against the bugs. Put a fine wire-screen over each hill, of

which

will

the rain.

keep out the bugs and admit I

should

screens would not cost

say

that

these

much more than

the melons you would be likely to get from the vines if you bought them ;

but then think of the moral satisfaction of watching the bugs hovering over the screen, seeing, but unable to reach the

tender plants within.

paying

That

worth

for.

my own

garden yesterday, and went over to where Polly was getting I left

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

the weeds out of one of her flower

She was working away at the

beds.

bed with a

little

Whether women

hoe.

ought to have the ballot or not (and I have a decided opinion on that point,

which

I should here plainly give, did I

not fear that

would injure

tural influence), I

agricul

compelled to say

that this was rather helpless hoeing. It

was

patient,

pathetic hoeing effective

nor

;

even

conscientious,

but

was

neither

When

finished.

com

bed looked somewhat

pleted, the

a hen had scratched

as if

there was that

touching unevenness about it. I think no one could look at it and not be affected. off

To be

sure, Polly

smoothed

with a rake, and asked

wasn

nice

;

and

I said it was.

not a favorable time for

it it

was

to explain

between puttering hoe

the

difference

ing,

and the broad,

free

sweep of the

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

which

kills the weeds, the spares plants, and loosens the soil

instrument,

without leaving But, after

think

all,

as life

holes is

and

hills.

constituted, I

honest and Polly anxious care of her plants than of the most finished gardening in the world. s

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

FIFTH WEEK. ~T~

LEFT my the

garden

for a

the

week, just at

dry

spell.

season of rain immediately set in, and when I returned the transformation was wonderful. ble

had

In one week, every vegeta

fairly

jumped

tomatoes which I

left

forward.

The

slender plants,

eaten of bugs and debating whether they would go backward or forward,

had become stout and

lusty, with thick

stems and dark leaves, and some of

them had blossomed.

The corn waved

which grows so rank out of the French-English mixture at Water

like that

I will not speak The squashes of the squashes. The most remarkable

loo.

growth was the asparagus.

There was

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. not a spear above ground

and now

when

went

had sprung up, and gone to seed, and there were stalks I am entirely higher than my head.

away

;

aware of the value of words, and of moral obligations. When I say that asparagus had grown six feet in seven days, I expect and wish to be I am a little particular about believed. the

the statement

;

for, if

there

any

prize

offered for asparagus at the next agri cultural fair, I wish to compete, to govern.

What

asparagus.

who looked "

bed, said, told

I claim is the fastest

eating purposes, I

for

have seen better. in at

speed

neighbor of mine,

the growth of the

Well, he d be

him there was no use of

but

affirming

now; he might keep his oath till ] wanted it on the asparagus affidavit. In order to have this sort of asparagus, you want to manure heavily in the

MY SUMMER

IN A

GARDEN

and top-dress (that sounds technical) with a thick if you layer of chloride of sodium spring, fork

early

in,

cannot get that, common salt will do, and the neighbors will never notice

whether

the orthodox Na. Cl. 58.5,

it is

or not. I scarcely dare trust

myself to speak

of the weeds.

They grow

was in them.

of the of

church,

know

as if the devil

a lady, a

member

and a very good

sort

considering the subject condition of that class, who says that the weeds work on her to that extent,

woman,

that, in

going through her garden, she

has the greatest difficulty in keeping the ten commandments in any thing like

an unfractured condition. which one

one

felt

The

sort of

(if I

but she

I asked her

said, all of

them

breaking the whole

weed which

lot.

most hate

can be said to hate any thing which

MY SUMMER grows in a

ley/

my own

IN A GARDEN. is

garden)

the

pus-

ground-clinging, spreading,

fat,

greasy thing, and the most propagations (it is not my fault if the word is not in the dictionary) plant I

know.

saw

w ho came over with a

a Chinaman,

returned missionary, and pretended to be converted, boil a lot of it in a pot, stir in

relish,

eggs, and "Me

mix and

likee

he."

with

It will

be a

eat

good thing to keep the Chinamen on when they come to do our gardening. I only fear they will cultivate

at the

expense of the strawberries and melons. Who can say that other weeds, which

despise,

may

not

be the favorite

food of some remote people or tribe.

ought to abate our conceit. It is possible that we destroy in our gardens that \vhich

some

other

manner, our

really of place.

faults

most value

Perhaps,

and vices are virtues

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

in. some

remote planet.

however, that

this

see,

of the

any more than

are.

There forced bors,

thought

slightest value to us here,

weeds

cannot

another

upon

and I

subject which

I like

notice.

like chickens

;

neigh but I do not

think they ought to be united near a

Neighbors hens in your gar den are an annoyance. Even if they did not scratch up the corn, and peck garden.

the strawberries, and eat the tomatoes,

not pleasant to see them straddling about in their jerkey, high-stepping,

it is

speculative manner, picking inquisitively

here and there.

It is of

no use to

the neighbor that his hens eat

tomatoes

way

your on

makes no impression

him, for the tomatoes are not best

tell

to casually

The

his.

remark

him

that he has a fine lot of chickens, pretty well grown, and that

you

spring

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

chickens broiled.

take them

will

The- neighbors small children are also out of place in your

away

once.

garden, in strawberry and currant time. I hope I appreciate the value of children.

We should

soon come to nothing without them, though the Shakers have the best

Without them

gardens in the world. the

common

school

would

languish.

do with But the problem is, what them in a garden. For they are not to

good

to eat,

and there

a law against

making away with them.

The law

not very well enforced, it is true for people do thin them out with constant ;

and soothing-sirups, and scanty clothing. But I, for one, feel that it would not be right, aside dosing,

paregoric,

from the law, to take the the

smallest child,

little fruit,

may

more or

be wrong

;

life,

even of

for

the sake of a

less,

in the garden.

but

these are

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

sentiments, and I

When we

them. in his

Iliad/

not ashamed of

come, as Bryant says

to leave the circus of this

and join that innumerable caravan which moves, it will be some satis life,

faction to us, that

the

way

we have

never, in

of gardening, disposed of even

the humblest child unnecessarily.

plan would be to put them into Sunday schools more thoroughly, and to give the Sunday schools an agricultural turn ;

teaching the children the sacredness of neighbors vegetables. I think that

our Sunday schools do not sufficiently impress upon children the danger, from snakes and otherwise, of going into the

neighbors gardens.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

SIXTH WEEK. has sent

SOMEBODY of hoe, with

hew

sort

the wish that I should

speak favorably of ently.

I willingly

it,

if I

so,

understanding that I

can consist

but with the be at liberty

any other If I under

to speak just as courteously of

hoe which I

receive.

may

stand religious morals, this is the position of the religious press with regard

and wringing-machines.

to bitters

some

cases,

the

responsibility of such

a recommendation

shifted

upon the

wife of the editor or clergyman.

says she

entirely willing to

Polly

make

accompanied with an affidavit, with regard to this hoe ; but her habit certificate,

sitting

about

the

garden-walk, on

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

an inverted flower-pot, while

what destroys the

I hoe,

some

practical value of her

testimony.

to this hoe, I do not

mind saying

has changed my view of the desirableness and value of human life.

that

made life a holiday to made on the principle that

It has, in fact,

me.

man

It is

an upright, sensible, reasonable being, and not a grovelling wretch. It does away with the necessity of the is

hinge in the back.

and a half narrow

The handle

feet long.

seven

There are two

sharp on both edges, which come together at an obtuse angle blades,

in front; this

and

you walk along with

hoe before you, pushing and pulling

with a gentle motion, the weeds

fall

every thrust and withdrawal, and the slaughter is immediate and wide

spread.

When

got this hoe, I was

troubled with sleepless mornings, pains

MY SUMMER IN A

GAItDEN.

kleptomania with regard to when I went into my weeders

in the back,

new

;

garden, I was always sure to see some In this disordered state of mind thing.

and body, after a

and

day of using

late.

The morning

I got this hoe. it,

I regained

I slept perfectly

respect for

eighth commandment. After two doses of the hoe in the garden, the

the

weeds entirely disappeared. Trying it a third morning, I was obliged to throw it

over the fence in order to save from

destruction the green things that ought to is

grow

in the garden.

figurative language.

course, this

What

mean

is,

that the fascination of using this hoe is

that

such,

you

are

sorely tempted

employ upon your vegetables, after the weeds are laid low, and must hastily it

withdraw I

make

it,

to avoid unpleasant results.

this explanation,

because I in

tend to put nothing into these agricul-

MY SUMMER

46 tural

papers

IN A GARDEN.

not

that will

strictest scientific investigation

bear ;

the

nothing

that the youngest child cannot under

stand and cry for; nothing that oldest

and wisest men

will

the

not need to

study with care. I need not add, that the care of a gar den with this hoe becomes the merest pastime. I would not be without one The only danger is, for a single night.

you may rather make an idol of the hoe, and somewhat neglect your garden that

and fooling about with almost think, that, with one of

in explaining it.

it,

these in the hands of an ordinary day-

you might see he had been working.

laborer,

at night

where

Let us have peas. I have been a I have zealous advocate of the birds. rejoiced in their multiplication.

have

endured their concerts at four o clock the morning without a

murmur.

Let

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. them come,

I said,

and eat the worms,

in order that we, later, foliage

and the

have a

cat, a

fruits of

may

enjoy the

the earth.

magnificent animal, of the sex which votes (but not a pole-cat),

and powerful, that, if he were in the army, he would be called Long Tom.

so large

a cat of fine disposition, the most

irreproachable morals I ever saw thrown

away

in a cat,

and a splendid hunter.

spends his nights, not in social dissi pation, but in gathering in rats, mice, flying-squirrels,

and

also birds.

When

him brought me was wrong, and tried to convince him, while he was eating it, that he was for he is a reasonable doing wrong

a bird, I told

first

that

;

cat, and understands pretty much every thing except the binomial theorem and

down the cycloidal arc. The killing of with no effect.

the time

went on

But birds

great regret and shame.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

The other day,

went

garden

I had seen, the to get a mess of peas. day before, that they were just ready to

How

pick.

had lined the ground, The hoed, bushed them I

planted,

seven feet high, bushes were very fine, and of good wood. How I had delight

ed in the growing, the blowing, the

What a touching thought it podding was that they had all podded for me When I went to pick them, I found the !

open, and the peas gone. The dear little birds, who are so fond

pods

all split

of the all.

strawberries,

had eaten them

Perhaps there were left as many as I did not count them. I

I planted

made a the

rapid estimate of the cost of seed, the interest of the ground,

the price of labor, the value of the bushes, the anxiety of weeks of watch fulness.

I looked about

of Nature.

me on

the face

The wind blew from the

MY SUMMER

J7V

A GARDEN.

south so soft and treacherous

thrush

All sang in the woods so deceitfully But who was to Nature seemed fair. !

peas ? The fowls of the air have peas ; but what has man ? I called Cal I went into the house. give

back

(That is the name of our cat, given him on account of his gravity, We never morality, and uprightness. vin.

I petted him John.) I lavished upon him an enthu I told him that he fondness. call

familiarly

Calvin. siastic

had no I

had

fault

;

that the one action that

called a vice

bition of regard

bade him I

tinually.

instinct

was an heroic exhi

for

and

my do

interests.

con

likewise

now saw how much

better

than mere unguided reason.

Calvin knew.

he had put

his opinion

into English (instead of his native cat

alogue),

would have been

You

need not teach your grandmother to

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

suck

eggs."

was only the round of

The worms

Nature.

eat

noxious

something in the ground. The birds eat the worms. Calvin eats the birds.

eat

There

no,

the

we do not

chain

stops.

eat

Calvin.

When you

ascend the scale of being, and come to an animal that is, like ourselves, inedi ble,

you have arrived

you can

rest.

at a result

where

Let us respect the

cat.

completes an edible chain. I have little heart to discuss methods

of raising peas.

It occurs to

that I

can have an iron pea-bush, a sort of

through which I could discharge electricity at frequent intervals, and

trellis,

electrify the birds to

alight tiful

;

for

death

they stand upon

when they

beau

brush in order to pick out the peas. apparatus of this kind, with an

operator, would cost, however, about as

much as

the peas.

A neighbor suggests,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

up a scarecrow near the which would keep the birds away.

that I might put vines,

too

doubtful about

much

the birds are

accustomed to seeing a person

in poor clothes in the

much

for

garden to care Another* neighbor

that.

suggests, that the

the pods

come

;

birds do

not open

that a sort of blast, apt to

after rain, splits the pods,

birds then eat the peas.

and the

may

so.

There seems to be complete unity of action between the blast and the birds.

But good neighbors, kind

friends,

not increase, by talk, a disappointment which you cannot

desire

that

assuage.

you

will

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

SEVENTH WEEK.

GARDEN

A --*-

ity.

an awful responsibilYou never know what you is

may be aiding to grow in it. I heard a sermon, not long ago, in which the preacher said that the Christian, at the

moment

of his becoming one, was as perfect a Christian as he would be if he

be an archangel; that is, that he would not change thereafter at all,

grew

but

only

whether and

develop.

this is

from

know

good theology, or not

I hesitate to support it

tration

not

by an

;

illus

garden, especially as I do not want to run the risk of propa gating error, and I do not care to give away these theological comparisons to

clergymen who make

so little return

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. in

the

way

But

of labor.

I find, in dis

secting a pea-blossom, that hidden in the

centre of

a perfect miniature pea-

as perfect pod, with the peas all in it, a pea-pod as it will ever be ; only it is as tiny as a chatelaine ornament. Maize

and some other things show the same precocity.

This

theologic theory

confirmation is

startling,

the

and

sets

meditating upon the moral possibili ties of my garden. I may find in it yet the cosmic egg.

And, speaking of moral things, I am half determined to petition the (Ecu menical Council to issue a bull of ex communication against "pusley." Of all the forms which error has taken "

in this world,.! think that

worst. in St.

about the

In the middle ages, the monks

Bernard

community at Clairvaux excommunicated a vineyard which a

less

ascetic

rigid

monk had

planted

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

near, so that

bore nothing.

In 1120,

a bishop of Laon excommunicated the caterpillars in his diocese ; and, the fol

lowing year, St. Bernard excommunicat ed the flies in the Monastery of Foigny and in 1510 the ecclesiastical court pro

;

nounced the dread sentence against the rats of Autun, Macon, and Lyons. These examples are sufficient precedents. It will be well for the council, however, not to publish the bull either just before or just after a rain for nothing can kill ;

this pestilent is

heresy

when

the ground

wet.

time of

It is the

we ought

She

festival.

delightful

festivals.

Polly says

have one,

a strawberrysays they are perfectly

so nice to get people

this hot weather. They cre together I myself am ate such a good feeling very fond of festivals. I always go, !

when

I can consistently.

Besides the

MY SUMMER IN A strawberries, there are

GARDEN.

ice-creams and

cake and lemonade, and that sort of thing

;

and one always

next day

feels so well

after such a diet

cial re-unions, if

But

the

as so

there are good things

to eat, nothing can be pleasanter

they are very profitable,

and

;

you have a

good object. I agreed that we ought to have a festival; but I did not know

what object

to devote

to.

are

not in need of an organ, nor of any pulpitI do not know as they use cushions. pulpit-cushions

used

to,

when

now

much

preachers had

they have

something soft to pound, so that they would not hurt their fists. I suggested pocket-handkerchiefs, and flannels for

But Polly says that will all. You must have some

next winter. not do at

charitable object,

peals to

something that ap

a vast sense

something that

it will

something ; be right to get up

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

and that

lotteries

sort of thing for.

suggest a festival for the benefit of iny garden; and this seems feasible. In order to

make every thing

pass off pleas

antly, invited guests will bring or send their

own

I shall be

strawberries and cream, which

happy to

sell to

them

at a slight

There are a great many im provements which the garden needs; advance.

among them a sounding-board, so that the neighbors children can hear when I tell them to get a little farther off from the currant-bushes.

I should also like a se

from the ten commandments, in big letters, posted up conspicuously, and a few traps, that will detain, but not lection

maim,

for the benefit of those

not read. is,

But what

who can

most important

that the ladies should crochet nets to

cover over the strawberries. sized,

well-managed

festival

produce nets enough to cover

good-

ought

entire

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. beds;

and

can think of no

other

method of preserving the

berries

the birds next

wonder how

many

year.

strawberries

would need

from

for a

and whether they would cost more than the nets. festival,

am more and more

summer

man

impressed, as the goes on, with the inequality of

fight with Nature

;

especially in a

In savagery, it does not matter for one does not take a

civilized state.

much

;

square hold, and put out his strength, But rather accommodates himself to the situation,

and takes what he can

get,

without raising any dust, or putting himself into everlasting opposition. But the minute he begins to clear a spot lar

ger than he needs to sleep in for a

and to try to have his own way in the least, Nature is at once up, arid vigi

night,

lant, all

and contests him

at every step with

her ingenuity and unwearied vigor

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

This talk of subduing Nature is pretty much nonsense. I -do not intend to

summer cannot but think how

surrender in the midst of the

campaign, yet I

much more peaceful my relations would now be with the primal forces, if I had let Nature make the garden according to her own notion. (This is written with the thermometer at ninety degrees, and the weeds starting up with a fresh

they had just for the first time, and had

ness and vigor,

thought of it not been cut down and dragged out

snow went every other day since the off.)

have got down the forests, and exterminated savage beasts ; but Nature she is no more subdued than before :

only changes her

tactics,

uses smaller

She re-enforces her guns, so to speak. self with a variety of bugs, worms, and vermin, and weeds, unknown to the sav-

MY SUMMER age

state, in

IN A GARDEN.

order to

make war upon

the things of our planting ; and calls in the fowls of the air, just as we think

won, to snatch away the When one gets almost weary of

the battle booty.

the struggle, she

ate

for

as fresh as at the

just, in fact,

beginning, fray.

the value

ready for the

part, begin to appreci

of frost and

snow

;

for

they give the husbandman a little peace, and enable him, for a season, to contem plate his incessant foe subdued.

not wonder that the tropical people, where Nature never goes to sleep, give it

up, and

Here

sit

season to

in lazy acquiescence.

have been working

make

a piece of lawn.

all

the

had

graded and sowed and rolled ; and I have been shaving it like a barber. When it was soft, every thing had a ten to be

go on to

cows, and espe

dency

cially

wandering hackmen.

it,

Hackrnen

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

(who are a product of civilization) know a lawn when they see it. They rather have a fancy for it, and always try to drive so as to cut the sharp borders of it,

and leave the marks of their wheels

in deep ruts of cut-up, ruined turf.

The

other morning, I had just been running the mower over the lawn, and stood

regarding

its

smoothness,

when

I noticed

one, two, three puffs of fresh earth in it ; and, hastening thither, I found that the

mole had arrived of the hackmen.

complete the work In a half-hour, he had

I rooted up the ground like a pig. found his run-ways. I waited for him

with a spade. He did not appear; but, the next time I passed by, he had ridged the ground in

all directions,

smooth, beautiful animal, with fur like him. He silk, if you could only catch

much as appears to enjoy the lawn as the hackmen did. He does not care

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

how smooth

is.

constantly

mining, and ridging it up. I am not sure but he could be counter-mined. I

have half a mind to put powder in here and there, and blow the whole thing into the air.

Some

the mole

;

but

folks set traps for

moles never seem to

go twice in the same place. I am not sure but it would bother them to sow the lawn with interlacing snake-grass (the botanical name of which, somebody writes

time I

the first me, is devil-grass have heard that the Devil has a :

botanical

them,

name), which would

if it is as difficult for

them

worry to get

through it as it is for me. I do not speak of this mole in any tone of complaint. He is only a part of the untiring resources which Nature brings against the desire

write

humble gardener. I nothing against him

which I should wish to

recall at the last,

MY SUMMER IN

A GARDEN.

nothing foreign to the

spirit

of that

beautiful saying of the dying boy,

had no copy-book, which, dying, he was sorry he had blotted."

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

EIGHTH WEEK. "IV

/f~Y garden has

-Lj--

High

been visited by a President

Official Person.

nt was here just before the Fourth, getting his mind quiet for that event

by a few days of retirement, staying with a friend at the head of our street

and I asked him

he wouldn

;

t like to

come down our way Sunday afternoon, plain, simple look at

and take a den, eat a

and drink a

jelly-cake,

over tion

gate,

Gardener ;

and didn

igently on

couldn

gar

glass of native

thought of putting up

lager-bier.

lemon ice-cream and

little

it.

Welcome

but I hate nonsense, I,

however, hoed

Saturday

remove

to the

dil

what weeds

I buried, so that every

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

thing would look all right. The borders of my drive were trimmed with scissors

;

and every thing that could offend the Eye of the Great was hustled out of the way. In relating this interview, it must be distinctly understood that I am not responsible for

dent said

;

nor

any thing that the is

he, either.

presi

not

a great speaker but whatever he says has an esoteric and an exoteric meaning ;

;

and some of

his

remarks

about

vegetables went very deep. nothing to him whatever about

my said

politics,

which he seemed a good deal sur prised he said it was the first garden at

he had ever been

in,

with a man, when

I the talk was not of appointments. told him that this was purely vege

table his

;

after

ease,

which he seemed more

and, in

fact,

every thing he saw.

delighted with

He was much

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. interested in

what

strawberry-beds, asked

varieties I had,

and requested

him some

the

to send

patent-office

seed.

seed was

said

difficult

an appropriation for the St. Domingo business. The playful bean seemed also to please him and he said

raise

;

he had never seen such impressive corn and potatoes at this time of year that ;

was

him an unexpected

pleasure,

and one of the choicest memories that he should take away with him of visit to

New

N.B.

his

England.

That corn and those potatoes

which Gen. Gr

nt looked

for seed, at five dollars

dollar a potato.

at, I will sell

ear,

Office-seekers

and one need not

apply.

Knowing the for peas, I

great desire from that part of

president

kept him

the garden where the vines grow. But they could not be concealed. Those who

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

say that the president

moved saw

my pea-pods,

easily

ravaged by the birds,

A man

tears.

knows the value of they were an excellent pion of

man

When

are knaves or fools.

he burst into

not a

of war, he

sort,

As quick

England."

him

I told

peas.

The Cham as a flash,

said,

don t you call them "The BevJohnson ? erdy It was a very clever bon-mot ; but I "

Why

changed the

The

subject.

sight of

squashes, with stalks

as big as speaking-trumpets, restored the

president to his usual

the

spirits.

summer squash was the most

said

ludi

crous vegetable he knew. all

leaf

It was nearly and blow, with only a sickly,

crook-necked fruit after a mighty fuss. It reminded him of the member of Con gress

from

;

change the subject.

but

hastened

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. As we walked

along, the keen eye of

upon some hand which must pusley,"

the president rested

some sprays of have grown up since Saturday night. It was most fortunate for it led his excel-, "

;

lency to speak of the Chinese problem.

said

he had been struck with one cou "

pling of the Chinese and

pusley

agricultural papers

;

and

one

had

more far-reaching than I had probably supposed. He had made the significance

Chinese problem a special study. that I was

said

"pusley"

was

saying that natural food of

right in

the

Chinaman, and that where the was there would the Chinaman pusley"

the "

also.

For

his

part,

the Chinese emigration

Chinaman "pusley;"

we needed

the

our gardens to eat the and he thought the whole

problem solved by tion.

he welcomed

To get

this simple considera

rid of rats

and

pusley,"

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

said,

was a necessity of our

did not care so

business tle

civilization.

much about

the shoe-

he did not think that the

;

lit

Chinese shoes that he had seen would

be of service in the army but the gar den-interest was quite another affair. :

want

country

make

a garden of our whole

the hoe, in the hands of a

truly great, he

was pleased

to say,

man was

mightier than the pen. He presumed that Gen. B tl r had never taken into consideration the garden-question, or he

would not assume the position he does with regard to the Chinese emigration. He would let the Chinese come, even if

was going

had

to leave, I

to say, but I

thought he

changed the sub

ject.

During our entire garden interview (operatically speaking, the garden-scene),

the president was not smoking. I do not know how the impression arose that he

MY SUMMER "

IN A GARDEN.

uses tobacco in any form

;

for I

have

seen him several times, and he was not Indeed, I offered him a Con

smoking.

necticut six

but he wittily said that he

;

did not like a

mark which

weed

in a garden,

I took to

political bearing,

a re

have a personal

and changed the sub

ject.

The president was a good deal sur prised at the method and fine appear garden, and to learn that I had the sole care of it. He asked me if

ance of

I I

pursued an original course, or whether got my ideas from writers on the sub

ject.

I told

him

that I had had

time to read any thing on the subject since I

began to hoe, except Lothair," from which I got my ideas of landscapegardening and that I had worked the "

;

garden entirely according to my own notions, except that I had borne in mind his injunction,

to fight

out on this line

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

The president stopped me ab and said it was unnecessary to

if"

ruptly,

repeat that remark

heard

he thought he had Indeed, he deeply re

before.

gretted that

had

made

ever

it.

Sometimes, he said, after hearing it in speeches, and coming across it in resolu

and reading

tions,

in newspapers,

and

dropped jocularly by facetious politicians, who were boring him for an having

office,

for a

about twenty-five times a day, say

month,

would get

his head, like the

through song which until

tracted.

did seem as

said,

running "

shoo-fly

r sings in the if

House,

he should go

dis

no man could stand

that kind of sentence

hammering on

his

brain for years.

The president was with

my management

that he offered

much

pleased

the garden,

(at least, I so

under

stood him) the position of head gardener

MY SUMMER

IX A GARDEN.

White House,

at the

the exotics.

him, but that

have care of

him

I told

that I thanked

did not

desire

any had resolved, foreign appointment. when the administration came in, not I

to take an appointment;

my I it

resolution.

was poor, but honest would be useless for

and

had kept

any home ;

office,

and, of course,

to take one.

The president mused a moment, and then smiled, and said he would see what could

done

for

me.

did

change the subject but nothing further was said by Gen. Gr nt.

not

;

The president trary to I think

a great talker (con

the general impression)

;

but

he appreciated his quiet hour

garden.

back to

his

said it carried

youth farther

than

him any

thing he had seen lately. He looked forward with delight to the time when

he could again have his private garden,

MY SUMMER

his

grow

own

IN A GARDEN.

and tomatoes, and much from

lettuce

not have to get so

"sarce"

Congress.

The

chair in which the president sat,

while declining to take a glass of lager, I have had destroyed, in order that

no one

way

may

to save

sit it,

it.

if I

may

was the only so speak.

would it

have been impossible to keep from use by any precautions. There

are people

who would have

sat in

it,

the seat had been set with iron spikes. Such is the adoration of Station. if

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

NINTH WEEK.

T AM more and more impressed with -*-

the moral

qualities

of vegetables,

and

contemplate forming a science which shall rank with comparative

anatomy and comparative philology, the

science

morality.

comparative vegetable live in an age of proto

plasm. And, if life-matter is essentially the same in all forms of life, I purpose to begin early,

and ascertain the nature

of the plants for which I am responsible. I will not associate with any vegetable

which

disreputable, or has not

quality that can contribute to

some

my moral

growth. I do not care to be seen much with the squashes or the dead-beets. Fortunately I can cut down any sorts

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

do not like with the hoe, and, probably, commit no more sin in so doing, than I

the Christians did in hewing Jews in the middle ages.

down the

This matter of vegetable rank has not been at all studied as it should be.

Why

do we respect some vegetables,

and despise others, when all of them come to an equal honor or ignominy on the table ? The bean is a graceful, but you engaging vine never can put beans into poetry, nor There into the highest sort of prose. confiding,

;

no dignity in the bean.

affectation

child

literature. its

high

vulgar. is

grows alongside the far as I can see, with no

garden,

bean, and, so

the

Corn, which,

of superiority,

of song.

But mix tone

It is the

It it

however,

waves

all

with beans, and

gone.

bean

is,

Succotash it.

The bean

a vulgar vegetable, without culture,

MY SUMMER or

any

flavor

vegetables.

IN A GARDEN.

of high society

among

Then there

cucumber, like so

many

the

cool

good the and ripe

people,

nothing when it is wildness has gone out of for

How

it.

rior in quality it is to the

infe

melon, which

grows upon a similar vine, is of a like watery consistency, but is not half so valuable

The cucumber

a sort of

low comedian in a company where the melon is a minor gentleman. I might also contrast the celery

with the potato.

The

associations

are

opposite

the dining-room of the duchess and the

cabin of

the

potato, both in vine it is

not aristocratic. potatoes,

peasant.

admire

the

and blossom; but I

began digging

the way,

about the

4th of July; and I fancy I have dis covered the right way to do it. I treat the potato just as I would a cow.

do not pull them up, and shake them

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

and destroy them

out,

the

fully

that

cuts

sub

exactions, until the frost

down.

go on bearing, and

will

mitting to

remove

hill,

grown, leaving the and my theory is,

undisturbed

vine

but I dig care

of the

side

the fruit which

;

game

that one

would not undertake with a vegetable of tone.

The

lettuce

ing study. it

must be

that it.

you

Lettuce fresh

and

a most interest like conversation

crisp, so sparkling,

scarcely notice the

bitter in

Lettuce, like most talkers,

is,

how

apt to run rapidly to seed. Blessed is that sort which comes to a ever,

head, and so remains, like a few people I

know; growing more

solid

and

satis

and tender at the same time, and whiter at the centre, and crisp in factory

their

maturity.

sation, requires a

Lettuce, like

good deal of

conver oil,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

avoid friction, and keep the company smooth ; a pinch of attic salt ; a dash of pepper; a quantity of mustard and

means, but so mixed that you will notice no sharp contrasts ; and a trifle of sugar. You can put any

vinegar,

all

more things the

thing, and the

better,

into salad, as into a conversation; but

every thing depends upon the I feel that I

mixing.

when

society is

the

select

skill

in the best

with lettuce.

circle

most

of vegetables.

The tomato appears well on the but you do not want to ask its It

table

;

origin.

agreeable parvenu.

course, I have said nothing about the berries.

They

live in

another and more

ideal region; except, perhaps, the cur rant.

Here we

see, that,

berries, there are

The currant truth,

even among

degrees of breeding.

well enough,

and exquisite in color

;

clear

but I ask

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

you

notice

how

hauteur

exclusive

from the

far it is

the

aristocratic

strawberry, and the native refinement of the quietly elegant raspberry. I

do not

know

that chemistry, search

ing for protoplasm, is able to discover It can the tendency of vegetables.

only be found out by outward observa I confess that I am suspicious of tion.

There are signs

the bean, for instance. in

of an unregulated

life.

put up

the most attractive sort of poles for

Limas. like

They stand high and

church-spires,

straight,

theological

up; and some of them have even budded, like Aaron s rod. garden,

lifted

church-steeple

village

was ever better

New-England to draw

fitted

on Sunday, up my beans

to it the rising generation

than those poles to lift towards heaven. Some of them did run

up the

sticks

seven

feet,

and

then

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

straggled off into the air in a wanton manner; but more than half of them

went galivanting off to the neighboring and wound their tendrils grape^- trellis, with the tendrils of the grape, with a disregard of the proprieties of life

which

a satire upon

human

nature.

And the grape morally no better. I not think the ancients, who were is

troubled with the recondite mystery of

protoplasm, were right in the mythic union of Bacchus and Venus.

Talk about the Darwinian theory of

and

development,

natural selection

the

principle

I should like to see a

garden let to run in accordance with it. If I had left my vegetables and weeds to a free fight, in

which the strongest

specimens only should come to maturi ty, and the weaker go to the wall, I can clearly see that I should have had a pret ty

mess of it

would have been a scene

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

of passion and

The

and

license

brutality.

would have strangled the "pusley strawberry the upright corn, which has ;

now

ears to hear the guilty beating of

the hearts of the children

who

steal the

would have been dragged to the earth by the wandering bean raspberries,

;

the snake-grass would have left no place for the potatoes under ground ; and the

tomatoes would have been swamped by the lusty weeds. With a firm hand, I

have had to make selection."

my own

Nothing

"natural

will so well

bear

watching as a garden, except a family of children next door. Their power of selection beats mine. If they could read half as well as they can steal a while away, I should put up a notice, "Children,

beware

here."

But

effect.

I believe

There

suppose

Protoplasm would have no

they would eat proto

plasm as quick as any thing

else, ripe

MY SUMMER or green.

IN A GARDEN.

wonder

be a cholera-year. is

if this

going to

Considerable cholera

the only thing that would let

apples and pears ripen. not care for the fruit

want so

Of course ;

my I

but I do not

to take the responsibility of letting

much

life -matter," full

of crude and

even wicked vegetable-human tenden pass into the

composition of the neighbors children, some of whom may be as immortal as snake-grass. There cies,

ought to be a public meeting about this, and resolutions, and perhaps a clam bake.

least, it

ought to be put into

the catechism, and put in strong.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

TENTH WEEK.

THINK

-** to

tried

which

keep the I

have discovered the way peas from the birds. I

scare-crow plan, in a thought would out-wit

way

The brain of the

bird

shrewdest bird.

the

not large but it is all concentrated on one object, and that is the attempt to elude the devices of modern civilization

;

which injure knew,

that, if I

his

chances of food.

put up a complete stuffed

man, the bird would detect the imita tion at once

the perfection of the thing would show him that it was a trick. :

People always overdo the matter

they attempt deception.

hung some color,

when

therefore

loose garments, of a bright

upon a rake-head, and

set

them

MY SUMMER IN up among the

The supposition would think there was

vines.

was, that the bird

A GARDEN.

him, that there was a

effort to trap

man

behind, holding up these garments, and would sing, as he kept at a "

distance,

You can

such double

catch

The

device."

with any

bird would

know, or think he knew, that

would

not hang up such a scare, in the ex pectation that it would pass for a man,

and deceive a bird

;

and he would there

fore look for a deeper plot.

to out-wit the bird

was simplicity calculated

itself.

the

by a I

I expected

duplicity that

may have

over-

sagacity and reasoning

power of the

bird.

over-calculate

the

At any amount

rate, I did

of peas I

should gather.

But

was only half played. In another part of the garden were other To these I peas, growing and blowing.

my game

took good care not to attract the atten-

T ^MY SUMMER IA A GARDEN.

tion of the bird

ever!

by any

I left the

what

scare -crow

old scare-crow con

spicuously flaunting above the old vines ;

and by

this

means

hope to keep the

attention of the birds confined to that side of the garden.

convinced that

this is the true use of a scare-crow

it is

a lure, and not a warning. If you wish to save men from any particular vice,

up a tremendous cry of warning about some other; and they will all give set

their special efforts to the one to

attention

called.

which

This profound truth

about the only thing I have yet real ized out of my pea-vines.

However, the garden does begin to I know of nothing that makes yield. one

feel

more complacent,

in these July

days, than to have his vegetables from his

own

garden.

What an

on the market-man and the butcher is

has

effect it !

a kind of declaration of independence.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. The market-man shows me

and

his peas

beets and tomatoes, and supposes shall "

out some with the meat.

No, I thank you/ I say carelessly

am I

send

raising

my own

this

year."

have been wont to remark,

getables look a I

ther,"

now

say,

What

Whereas

Your ve

wea

wilted this

little "

a fine lot of

When a man vegetables you ve got is not going to buy, he can afford to be ?

generous. To raise his own vegetables makes a person feel, somehow, more lib eral.

I think the butcher

touched by

the influence, and cuts off a better roast for

The butcher

me.

he sees that

friend

when

not wholly dependent

on him.

home, however, that the effect most marked, though sometimes in a

It is at is

way

that I had not expected.

never read of any

seemed

have

Roman supper

equal to a dinner of

that

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

vegetables ; when every thing on the table is the product of my own la bor, except the clams, which I have not

own

and the chickens, which have withdrawn from the garden

been able to

just

raise yet,

when they were most

attractive.

strange what a taste you suddenly have The for things you never liked before. is

squash has always been to me a dish of contempt; but I eat it now as if it were

best friend.

beet or the bean

;

them

I could eat

never cared for the

but all,

fancy

now

tops and

that

all,

completely have they been transformed by the soil in which they grew. I think the squash is less squashy, and the beet has a deeper hue of rose, for

my care

them. I

had begun

pride in

was the

to nurse a

good deal of presiding over a table whereon fruit of

But woman

honest industry.

John Stuart

Mill

right

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

87 I

when he

says that

thing about

we do not know any

women.

Six thousand years

day with them. I thought I had something to do with those ve

as one

getables.

her

But when side

over the

new and

saw Polly seated

the

table,

presiding

susceptible vegetables,

by the squash and the beans, and smiling upon the green corn and the new potatoes, as cool as the cucumbers which flanked

lay sliced in ice before her, and when she began to dispense the fresh dishes, I

saw at once that the day of my destiny You would have thought was over.

owned

all

had raised them

all

that she

years.

Such

gracious

the vegetables, and

from their

quiet, vegetable airs

appropriation

earliest !

Such

At length

said, "

Polly, do

you know who planted that "

squash, or those squashes "

James, I

suppose."

MY SUMMER

IN A GAKDEN.

Well, yes, perhaps James did plant

But who

them, to a certain extent.

hoed them "

tic

We We

did."

did

I said in

manner.

the sack-cloth striped

And

we put on

I suppose

and

bug came

the most sarcas

ashes,

when

the

at four o clock, A. M.,

and we watched the tender

leaves,

and

watered night and morning the feeble plants.

I tell you,

Polly,"

said

corking the Bordeaux raspberry vinegar, there is not a pea here that does not "

represent a drop of moisture wrung from my brow, not a beet that does not

stand for a back-ache, not a squash that has not caused me untold anxiety ; and

but I will say no more." In this sort of family Observation. is the I will say no more discussion,

I did

hope

most with.

effective thing

you can

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. I

cool as I

not an alarmist.

anybody

this

hope I hot summer.

But

quite ready to say to Polly, or any

other woman,

You can have

the ballot

;

the vegetables, or, what is more important, the consciousness of

only leave

power

Woman

1 see

vegetables."

now supreme

how

it is.

in the house.

She already stretches out her hand to grasp the garden. She will gradually control every thing.

Woman

one of

the ablest and most cunning creatures

human affairs. women who say they

who have ever mingled I

understand those

don

want the

hold the real

They purpose to power, while we go through ballot.

They mockery of making laws. the want the power without responsi (Suppose my squash had not bility. the

come up, or

beans

they threat

had gone the wrong where would I have been ? ) We

ened at one time

way

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

are to be held to

Woman

all

the responsibilities.

takes the lead in

all

the depart

ments, leaving us politics only. And what is politics ? Let me raise the vege tables of a nation, says Polly,

not

who makes

at the table,

its

politics.

armed with the

and I care

Here

I sat

ballot,

but

among my own vege While we are being amused by

really powerless tables.

the ballot,

woman

things into her

own

quietly

hancls.

taking

MY SUMMER IN

A GARDEN.

ELEVENTH WEEK. TJEKHAPS, after all,

it is

not what you

-*-

get out of a garden, but what you put into it, that is the most remunerative.

What

man ?

asked, and never,

factorily answered. his

question frequently

so far as I

seventy years,

know,

satis

He commonly spends if so many are given

him, in getting ready to enjoy himself.

How many does

which

one is

hours,

get

how many

happiness?

laziness, which

minutes,

of that

pure content I do not mean

always discontent

that serene enjoyment, in which

;

all

but the

natural senses have easy play, and the

unnatural ones have a holiday. There is probably nothing that has such a tran quillizing effect,

and leads into such con-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

tent, as gardening.

not

mean

gardening, I do

that insane desire to raise ve

getables which

some have

but the phil osophical occupation of contact with the earth, and companionship with gently ;

growing things and patient processes; that exercise which soothes the spirit,

and develops the deltoid muscles. In half an hour I can hoe myself right

away from see

it,

this world, as

into a large place

obstacles.

thought on eggs.

we commonly

where there are

What an

occupation it is for The mind broods like a hen

The trouble

is,

that

you are

not thinking about any thing, but are really vegetating like the plants around you. I begin to know what the joy of the grape-vine is in running up the trel lis, which is similar to that of the squirrel

running up a tree. We all have some thing in our nature that requires contact

with the earth.

In the solitude of gar-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

com

den-labor, one gets into a sort of

munion with the vegetable life, which makes the old mythology possible. For instance, I can believe that the dryads

are plenty this

summer:

garden is the mois

an ash-heap. Almost all ture it has had in weeks has been the like

sweat of honest industry.

The pleasure of gardening in these days, when the thermometer is at ninety, is

one that I fear I

make

shall

intelligible to

not be able to readers,

many

of whom do not appreciate the delight of soaking in the sunshine. I suppose that the sun, going through a man, as

on such a day, takes out of him rheumatism, consumption, and every

will

other disease, except sudden death

from sun-stroke.

But, aside from

this,

an odor from the evergreens, the hedges, the various plants and vines,

there

that

only expressed and set afloat at a

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

high temperature, which is delicious and, hot as it may be, a little breeze will ;

come

at intervals,

which can be heard in

the tree-tops, and which

an unobtru

hear a quail or two whistling in the ravine and there is a sive benediction.

;

good deal of fragmentary conversation going on among the birds, even on the warmest days.

The companionship of

Calvin, also, counts for a

good

usually attends me, unless I

deal.

work too

long in one place; sitting down on the turf, displaying the ermine of his breast,

and watching

my movements

with great

has a feline and genu ine love for the beauties of Nature, and intelligence.

will establish himself

where there

good view, and look on always accompanies us

for hours.

when we go

He to

gather the vegetables, seeming to be de sirous to

know what we

dinner.

are to have for

a connoisseur in the gar-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. den

;

being fond of almost

tables,

all

the vege a dietetic

except the cucumber,

hint to man.

I believe it

also said

that the pig will not eat tobacco. are important facts. ever, that those

These

It is singular,

who hold up

how

the pigs as

models to us never hold us up as models to the pigs. I wish I

knew

much about

natural

history and the habits of animals

Calvin does.

the closest observer

and there are few species of animals on the place that he has not

I ever

saw

;

analyzed.

I think that

euphemism very

he has, to use a

applicable to him, got

outside of every one of them, except

the toad.

To the toad he

entirely

indifferent; but I presume he knows that the toad is the most useful animal

in the garden.

I think the Agricultural

Society ought to offer a prize for the finest toad.

When

Polly comes to

sit in

MY SUMMER IN A

the shade near

GARDEN.

strawberry-beds, to

always lying near in apparent obliviousness ; but not the slightest unusual sound can be made in shell peas, Calvin

the bushes, that he

not

alert,

and pre

pared to investigate the cause of is

it.

this habit of observation, so cultivated,

which has given him such a trained mind, and made him so philosophical. within the capacity of even the humblest of us to attain this.

It is

And, speaking of the philosophical temper, there is no class of men whose society

to be desired for this

quality than that of plumbers.

They

the most agreeable men I know ; and the boys in the business begin to be are

agreeable very early. I suspect the se cret of it is, that they are agreeable by the hour. In the dryest days, my foun tain

became

stopped up.

disabled

couple

the

pipe was

plumbers,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

with the implements of their craft, came out to view the situation. There was a good deal of difference of opinion about where the stoppage was. I found the plumbers perfectly willing to

down and talk about hour. Some of their

talk

it,

sit

by the

guesses and re

marks were exceedingly ingenious and their general observations on other sub ;

were excellent in their way, and could hardly have been better if they

jects

had been made by the dragged a

job.

The work

apt to do by The plumbers had occasion to

little

the hour.

make me

several

they would

find,

it is

visits.

Sometimes

upon arrival, that they had forgotten some indispensable tool; and one would go back to the shop, a mile and a half, after

;

and

his

com

rade would await his return with the

most exemplary patience, and sit down and talk, always by the hour. I do 7

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

not

know but

it is

a habit to have some

thing wanted at the shop.

They seemed

very good workmen, and always willing to stop and talk about the job, to

or any thing else,

them.

when

went near

Nor had they any of that im

petuous hurry that is said to be the bane of our American civilization. To their credit be

said, that I

served any thing of can afford to wait.

never ob

in them.

Two

They them will

sometimes wait nearly half a day while a comrade goes for a tool. They are patient and philosophical.

pleasure to

It is

meet such men.

a great

One only

wishes there was some work he could do for

There ought to think they have very

them by the hour.

be reciprocity.

nearly solved the problem of Life to

work

for

other people, never

it is

for

yourself, and get your pay by the hour. You then have no anxiety, and little

MY SUMMER IN A work.

you

G A It DEN.

you do things by the

are perpetually driven

are scourges.

job.

the hours

you work by the hour,

on the stream of Time, which is always bearing you on to the haven of Pay, whether you make any ef

you gently

sail

Working by the hour tends

fort, or not.

make one

by the

moral.

A plumber working

job, trying to

unscrew a rusty,

refractory nut, in a

cramped position, where the tongs continually slipped off, would swear but I never heard one of ;

them swear,

or exhibit the least impa

tience at such a vexation, working

by the

Nothing can move a man who is paid by the hour. How sweet the flight of time seems to his calm mind hour.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

100

TWELFTH WEEK. "A

/TR.

_1_V_L

HORACE GREELEY, the intro-

d uc tion of whose name confers an

honor upon to say that his

consent),

agriculture.

him

sistible.

vising

;

page (although I ought is used entirely without

this

sole

politics, I

authority in

do not dare to

but in agriculture he

When,

therefore, I find

is irre

him ad

Western farmers not to hill up

corn, I think that his advice

You must

litical.

hill

their

must be po

up your

corn.

People always have hilled up their corn. It would take a constitutional amend

ment

change the practice, that has pertained ever since maize was raised. to

stand the drought better," says Mr. Greeley, if the ground is left level/ "

It will

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. I

have corn in

101

garden, ten

and

strong and lusty , standing the drought like a grenadier ; and it is hilled. In advising this rad

twelve

ical

feet

high,

change, Mr. Greeley evidently has

He might

a political purpose.

just as

you should not hill beans, when everybody knows that a hill of

well say that

one of the most expressive symbols of disparagement. When I be

beans"

come too lazy go into I

one

It did

my corn, I, too, shall

politics.

satisfied that it is useless to try

to cultivate it

to hill

pusley."

and gave

side,

I set a little of

some extra

care.

not thrive as well as that which I

The fact is, there is a spirit

was fighting.

of moral perversity in the plant, which makes it grow the more, the more it is interfered with. I

doubt

if "

pusley

satisfied of that.

any one has raised more year than I have ; and

this

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

102

warfare with

has been continual.

Neither of us has slept much.

combat

an ex

it, it

pression

grow, to use

will

that will

you

understood

have a neigh

many,

like the devil.

bor, a

good Christian man, benevolent,

and a person of good judgment. He planted next to me an acre of turnips recently.

A few

days

after,

he went to

look at his crop and he found the en tire ground covered with a thick and ;

luxurious carpet of turnip-top

worked

an ornament.

thrifty a field.

next time to sow

in here

"pusley"

mend It

and there

have seldom seen so

I advised

neighbor and then he

pusley

;

might get a few turnips. was more demand in our for

with

"pusley,"

as a salad.

wish there

city

markets

I can

recom

man

to soon

it.

does not take a great

discover, that, in raising

any thing, the

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

103

greater part of the plants goes into stalk

and

leaf,

and the

siderable portion. hill

of corn

and waves air,

and

and hoe a

I plant

grows green and stout, broad leaves high in the

its

most incon

fruit is a

months

in perfecting itself,

and then yields us not enough dinner.

grows because

ground, to absorb

fertilizers, to

luxuriant, and disport itself in the

mer

air,

and with very

making any return

my wax

sum

thought of

little

me.

delights to

to .take the juices out

so,

for

might go and fruit-trees all through my garden with a similar result. I have heard of places

where there was very

to the acre.

little

land

It is universally true, that

a great deal of vegetable show and fuss for the result produced. I do

there

not

complain

this.

One

cannot

expect vegetables to be better than men and they make a great deal of osten:

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEX.

104

tatious splurge

and many of them come

;

no result at

show of

leaf

last.

Usually, the

and wood, the

This melancholy reflection

here in order to

less

more fruit.

thrown

make dog-days seem

cheerful in comparison.

One of the minor that of controlling

pleasures of

vegetable

life

activity

and aggressions with the pruning-knife. Vigorous and rapid growth is, however, a necessity to the sport. To prune feeble plants and shrubs is like acting the part of dry-nurse to a sickly orphan.

You must feel the blood

of Nature bound

under your hand, and get the its life

your nerves.

thrill

control and

culture a strong, thrifty plant, in this

way,

steering a ship under, full

headway, or driving a locomotive with your hand on the lever, or pulling the reins over a fast horse

and

tail

are up.

when

his blood

do not understand,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

105

by the way, the pleasure of the jockey setting If

ly.

up the tail of the horse artificial I had a horse with a tail not

able to

sit

up, I should feed the horse,

and curry him into good

him

set

his

own

tail.

spirits,

When

poor, spiritless horse going

and

let

I see a

by with an

only a signal I desire to be surrounded

artificially set-up tail, it is

of distress.

only by healthy, vigorous plants and trees, which require constant cutting-in

and management. Merely to cut away dead branches is like perpetual attend ance at a funeral, and puts one in low

want

have a gafden and orchard rise up and meet me every morning, with the request to lay on, spirits.

but an age currant-bush, hoary with mossy

Macduff."

old

I respect old

;

a melancholy spectacle. I suppose the time has come

bark,

when

expected to say something about

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

106

do.

When

you plant, you think you cannot

fertilize

fertilizers

too

all agriculturists

much

when you get

too

fer

you do not get the value of the manure

little.

expect to back in

bills for

you cannot

the manure, you think tilize

the

and

fruits is

something

course,

vegetables

due to science,

but

;

chem

You must have

istry in particular.

knowledge of soils, must have your soil analyzed, and then go into a course of experiments to find what it needs. It needs

that,

analyzing,

clear

every thing needs that. You had better have the soil analyzed before about

you buy it

there

See

alone.

much

if it is

hoeing, and

there

no rain

when you come

"to

pusley in it, let a soil that requires "

how

for

fine it will

two months.

fertilizing, if I

get

But

under

stand the agricultural authorities, you that will ultimately swallow a

open

pit

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. farm and

you up,

modern

subject

all.

times,

107

the great

how

to fer

without ruinous expense ; how, in short, not to starve the earth to death tilize

while

our

get

out of

living

it.

hardly to the taste of a person of a poetic turn of mind. The details of fertilizing are not Practically, the business

art,

who

Michael Angelo,

agreeable.

every

tried

and nearly every trade, never

gave his mind to fertilizing. It is much pleasanter and easier to fertilize with a pen, as the agricultural writers do, than

with a fork.

And

this leads

to say,

that, in carrying

on a garden yourself,

you must have a

consulting

that

is,

man

gardener do the heavy and To such a man, I say, ;

unpleasant work. in language used by Demosthenes to the Athenians, and which is my advice to all "

gardeners,

"Fertilize,

fertilize, fertilize

MY SUMMER

108

IN A GARDEN.

THIRTEENTH WEEK.

T FIND -^-

that gardening has unsurpassed

advantages for the study of natural

history; and

some

come under

my own

cannot

fail

scientific facts

observation, which naturalists

interest

un-naturalists in about the

has

for instance,

Much,

have and

same degree. been written

about the toad, an animal without which

garden would

be complete.

account has been made

little

But

of his

the beauty of his eye alone has been dwelt on ; and little has been said

value

of his mouth, and as a fly

even stood.

important function and bug trap. His habits, and

his

origin,

Why,

its

have been misunder an

illustration,

are

toads so plenty after a thunder-shower

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. All

answer

after a

life

109

long, no one has been able

that

question.

Why

heavy shower, and in the midst

do such multitudes, of toads, espe cially little ones, hop about on the gravelof

it,

For many years, I believed that they rained down; and I suppose many walks?

people think so

still.

and they come

in such

They

are so small,

numbers only

the shower, that the supposition is not a violent one. Thick as toads after a "

shower,"

one of our best proverbs.

asked an explanation of this of a

indeed, a leader in thoughtful woman, the great movement to have all the

toads hop in any direction, without any distinction

sex

reply was, that the

religion.

toads

come

Her out

during the shower to get water. This, however, is not the fact. I have dis

covered that they come out not to get water.- I deluged a dry flower-bed, the

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

110

other night, with pailful after pailful of water. Instantly the toads came out

of their holes in the twenties and

drowning. ridiculous

dirt,

tens and

to escape death

fifties,

The big ones

away

in a

streak of hopping; and

the

fled

ones sprang about in the wildest confusion. The toad is just like any

little

other land animal full

when

of water, he quits

it.

his

house

These

facts,

with the drawings of the water and the toads, are at the service of the distin

guished

scientists

York, who were so

of Albany in

New

much impressed by

the Cardiff Giant.

The domestic cow

another animal

whose ways I have a chance to study, and also to obliterate in the garden.

One of land

;

neighbors has a cow, but no

and he seems desirous

to pasture

her on the surface of the land of other people

a very reasonable desire.

The

MY SUMMER

man proposed to

IN A GARDEN.

that he should be allowed

cut the grass from

knew

his cow.

had her

and the

size

Ill

grounds

for

the cow, having often

garden; knew her gait of her feet, which struck

as a little large for the size of the

Having no

body.

acquaintance with

myself,

but

him

that I thought

him

have the

neighbor s, I told it would be fair for

grass.

was, there

keep the grass nicely cut, and

fore, to

keep his cow at home. I waited some time after the grass needed cut

ting

and, as

;

pear,

hired

neighbor did not ap cut. No sooner was it

done, than he promptly appeared, and raked up most of it, and carried it away.

He had

evidently been waiting

When

that

the

grass grew the did not again, neighbor appear with his scythe but one morning I found the

opportunity.

;

.cow tethered on the sward, hitched near

MY SUMMER

112

IN A GARDEN.

the clothes-horse, a short distance from

This seemed to

the house.

man s

idea of the best I disliked to

grass.

because I

way

to cut the

have the cow there,

knew her inclination

to pull

the stake, and transfer her field of to

ing

the

but

garden,

moo

one

like the wail of

communicated, and

mow

especially

She has the most

because of her voice.

melancholy

the

ever heard.

un-infallible,

lost.

It is a

most

perpetual reminder of the brevity of life and the shortness of distressing

unpleasant to the family. sometimes hear it in the middle of

feed.

It is

the night, breaking the silence like a

suggestion of coming calamity. It is as bad as the howling of a dog at a funeral. I told the man about it; but he

seemed

to think that

sible for the

him

cow

to take her

he was not respon I then told voice.

away; and he

did, at

)

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. intervals, shifting

113

her to different parts

of the grounds in

absence, so that

the desolate voice would startle us from

unexpected quarters. If I were to un hitch the cow, and turn her loose, I

knew where to

lead

she would go.

her away,

the

If I

were

question was,

Where ? for I did not fancy leading a cow about till I could find somebody who was willing to pasture her. To this dilemma

had

reduced me.

my But

Sunday morning,

excellent I

neighbor him, one

found

a day

when

would

not do to get angry, tying his cow at the foot of the hill ; the beast all the

time going on in that abominable voice. I told the man that I could not have the

cow in the grounds. boss

;

He said,

but he did not go

All right,

away.

The man, who a French sympathizer from the Re

asked him to clear out. is

public of Ireland, kept his temper per-

114

MY SUMMER

fectly.

said

IN A GARDEN.

he wasn

make me

the world.

doing any bit he

cow a

thing, just feeding his

wouldn

the least trouble in

reminded him that he had

been told again and again not to come here that he might have all the grass, ;

but he should not bring his cow upon

The imperturbable man

the premises.

assented to every thing that I said, and

kept

feeding

his

Before I

cow.

got him to go to fresh scenes and pas sabbath was almost tures new, the

broken it is

one

man

but

difficult is

was saved by one thing to be emphatic when no

;

emphatic on the other side. and his cow have taught

great lesson, which I shall recall

keep a cow.

anybody wants one, boarder, whose keeping like

little

;

when

a I

can recommend this cow,

owner

The

steady will cost the

but, if her milk

at all

who

are on

her voice, those

drink

the straight road to lunacy.

MY SUMMER

IX A GARDEN.

115

have said that we nave a

I think I

game-preserve. We keep quails, or try to, in the thickly wooded, bushed, and

brushed ravine.

This bird

favorite with us,

dead or

count of flesh,

its

pleasant

tasteful

preserve more

And we

did.

tender

and

its

although

appreciate toads and cows, and sort of thing, I like

on ac

its

virtues,

Besides,

a great

alive,

plumage,

domestic piping.

all

that

have a game-

the

English style. For in July, while the

game-law was on, and the young quails were coming on, we were awakened one

morning by at

that

musketry

firing,

hand.

first

war was declared

;

firing,

thought was,

but, as I should

never pay much attention to war de clared at that time in the morning, I

went

to sleep again.

But the occurrence

and not only early in There was the morning, but at night.

was repeated,

MY SUMMER

116

IN A GARDEN.

calling of dogs, breaking

and

firing of guns.

down

of brush,

hardly pleasant to have guns fired in the direction of the house, at your own quails. The hunters could be sometimes seen, but

never

caught.

about

sunrise

Their

best

time

was

one

could

dress and get to the front, they

would

;

but,

before

retire.

One morning, about heard

the

battle

four o clock, I

renewed.

sprang in to a but not and went arms, up, window. Polly (like another "blessed damozel")

The

flew to another window, blessed damozel leaned out

From

and

the gold bar of

reconnoitred

heaven,"

from

behind

the

blinds. "

The wonder was not

From

that

still

yet quite gone

look of

hers,"

when an armed man and

a legged dog

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. appeared in the opening. lantly watching him. "

Are you

of the

and "

she spoke as

stars

when

sang in their

spheres."

this inquiry, I leaned

window "

him ?

Not exactly, "

Stung by

vigi

still weather."

afraid to speak to

asked Tolly. The

was

And now

She spoke through the "

117

out

till

The bar / leaned on (was)

warm,"

cried,

Halloo, there

What

are

you do-

ing?" "

Look out he don

shoot

you,"

called

out Polly from the other window, sud denly going on another tack. I explained, that a

sportsman would

not be likely to shoot a gentleman in his own house, with bird-shot, so long as quails

were

be had.

MY SUMMER

118

You have no

are

IN A GARDEN. business here

what

you

after

"Looking

man

I repeated.

for

a lost hen/

said the

he strode away.

The reply was

satisfactory

and

conclusive, that I shut the blinds,

and

went

to bed.

But one evening

overhauled one of

the poachers.

Hearing his dog in the rushed through the brush, and came in sight of the hunter as he was thicket, I

down the road. He came halt and we had some conversation high key. Of course, I threatened

retreating to a in a

;

to prosecute him.

I believe that

the

how I know his

thing to do in such cases; but

was

name face,

it,

when

I did not

or ancestry, and couldn

never occurred to me.

see his

remem

now, that a farmer once proposed prosecute me when I was fishing in a

ber, to

trout-brook on his farm, and asked

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

name

for that purpose.)

should smile to see "

You can

me it

119 said

lie

prosecute him. there

ain t

This view

notice

up about

of the

common law impressed me

trespassing."

;

and

I said, "

But these are private grounds." Private h was all his response. "

You can t argue much with a man who has a gun in his hands, when you have

none.

Besides,

needle-gun, for aught I it

up, and

might be a knew. I gave

separated.

disadvantage about hav ing a game-preserve attached to your

There

garden

this

makes

life

too lively.

UY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

120

FOURTEENTH WEEK. ~TN these

golden latter August days, Na-- ture has come to a serene equilibrium.

Having flowered and I

joying herself. are going this

;

fruited, she

can see

how

things

a down-hill business after

it is

but, for the time being,

such a deli swinging in a hammock, I take cious air, such a graceful repose off my hat as I stroll into the garden and look about and it does seem as if !

;

Nature had sounded a truce. ask for

it.

I didn t

went out with a hoe

;

but the serene, sweetness disarms me.

he armed who has a longYet handled-hoe, with a double blade. Thrice

to-day I

almost ashamed to appear

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

121

in such a belligerent fashion, with this terrible mitrailleuse of gardening.

The tomatoes

are

getting tired

ripening, and are beginning to go into a

worthless condition,

green.

The cu

cumbers cumber the ground, great yel to no more be com low, over-ripe objects, pared to the crisp beauty of their youth than is the fat swine of the sty to the clean

little

pig.

The nutmeg-melons,

having covered themselves with cate lace-work, are

the vine.

come

now ready

know they

deli

to leave

are ripe if they

easily off the stem.

Moral

Observations.

when people

are ripe

You can by

tell

their willing

Kichness and ripeness The. rich are are not exactly the same. apt to hang to the stem with tenacity. If I I have nothing against the rich.

ness to let go.

were not virtuous, rich.

I should like to

But we cannot have every

thing,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

122

as tlie

man

when he was down with

said

small-pox and cholera, and the yellowfever came into the neighborhood.

Now, the

grapes, soaked in this liquid

gold, called air, begin to turn, mindful

of the injunction,

The

to turn

burn."

under the leaves are getting quite purple, but look better than they I think there is no danger but taste. clusters

they will be gathered as soon as they are One of the blessings of having an ripe.

open garden is, that I do not have to watch my fruit a dozen youngsters do :

that, it

and

let

matures.

waste no time after

wish

were possible

grow a variety of grape

the explo

sive bullets, that should explode in the

stomach

the vine would

nice border for the garden,

battery of grape.

The

make such a

masked

pears, too, are

getting russet and heavy; and here and there

amid

the

shining

leaves,

one

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

123

cheek of the

gleams as ruddy

as the

Nutbrown Maid.

The Flemish Beauties

come

off readily

them

from the

hand

beauty come

off

stein, if I

they say

all

take

kinds of

by handling.

much as if it were an empire. Even the man s cow lies down under the tree where the man The garden

peace as

has tied her, with such an air of content

ment, that I have small desire to disturb her. She is chewing my cud as if it

were hers. *

Well, eat on and chew on,

melancholy brute. to tell the

man

have not the heart

to take

you away and it had he wouldn t :

would do no good if I do it. The man has not a taking way. Munch on, ruminant creature. The frost ;

will

soon come

T will

;

the grass will be brown.

be charitable while this blessed

continues

;

for

lull

our benevolences must

soon be turned to other and more distant objects,

the amelioration of the concli-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

124

tion of the Jews, the education of the

young men

ological

in the West,

and

the like. I

know

do not

that these appearances

but I sufficiently know a wicked world, to be glad

are deceitful;

that this

that I have taken

on shares.

fact,

I could not pick the pears alone, not to

speak of eating them. When I climb the trees, and throw down the dusky fruit,

Polly catches

in her apron

ly always, however, letting go

drops, the

fall is

gets in her face

comes down,

;

it is

so sudden.

;

near

when it The sun

and, every time a pear a surprise, like having

a tooth out, she says. If I couldn t hold an apron better than that But the sentence is not "

finished

it is

useless to finish that sort

of a sentence in this delicious weather. Besides, conversation for instance,

dangerous. As, towards evening I am pre-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

125

paring a bed for a sowing of turnips, not that I like turnips in the least ; but this is the season to

comes seat

sow them.

Polly

out, and extemporizes her usual

consult

while I work.

I well

about

know

matters

that some

thing is coming. This is a rotation of crops, isn t it ? Yes I have rotated the gone-to-seed "

lettuce

off,

nips in

;

are

Isn t

it is it

to rotate the tur

a political

fashion."

a shame that the tomatoes

getting ripe at once

all

lot of

and expect

squashes

What

we had an

wish

Do you want me to any more than I am helping ?

ter-bed.

oys

help you

No, I thank you." this is about ?)

all

Don t you

think

strawberries next year

wonder what

could

sell

some

means, sell any thing. We shall no doubt get rich out of this acre." "

all

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

126

"Don

foolish."

And now Don t you !

think

would be nice

have a?" And Polly unfolds a small scheme of benevolence, which is to

not quite enough to break me, and is really to be executed in an economical

manner.

Wouldn

And where

Oh, yes to come from !

that be nice

the

money

thought we had agreed to

sell

the

strawberries."

But

Certainly.

make more money

we would

I think

sold the plants

now."

"Well,"

said

whole matter,

And, having thus goes away; and

Polly, I "

concluding the going to do it."

consulted

put

me, Polly

the

turnip-

seeds quite thick, determined to

enough

sell.

But not even

cenary thought can

ruffle

this

mind

raise

mer as I

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

127

rake off the loamy bed. I notice, how ever, that the spring smell has gone out of the

That went into the

dirt.

first

crop.

In this peaceful unison with yielding nature, I was a little taken aback to

new enemy had turned

find that a

up.

The celery had fiery

just rubbed through the scorching of the drought, and

stood a faint chance to

grow

noticed on the green leaves a

;

when

greenand-black worm, called, I believe, the

celery-worm called

him

;

but I don

big&gt;

know who

sure I did not.

was

almost ludicrous that he should turn up here, just at the end of the season, when I supposed that

war with the

animals was over. doubt, predestinated

work

;

he was, no for he went to

as cheerfully as if

in June,

when every

and vigorous.

living

Yet

he had arrived

thing was fresh beats me Nature

MI SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

128

does.

leave

doubt not, that,

if I

were

garden now for a week, it know me on my return. The

wouldn

patch I scratched over for the turnips,

and

left as

clean as earth,

ambitious

"pusley,"

already

which

fall

grows

the confidence of youth and the

with

all

skill

of old age.

It beats

the serpent

an emblem of immortality.

all

the others of us in the garden rest

and

While

comfort a moment, upon the summit of the summer, it is as rampant sit-in

and vicious armistice.

ever.

accepts

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

129

FIFTEENTH WEEK. ~"TT

absence conquers

said that

all

but

has

a contrary effect on a garden.

was

absent for two or three weeks.

I left

love

r*- things,

garden a

my go

included

;

paradise,

in this protoplastic world

;

paradises

and,

when

I returned, the trail of the serpent

over

all,

so to

speak.

(This

addition to the actual snakes in

it,

was

which

are large enough to strangle children of

average size.) I asked Polly if she had seen to the garden while I was away, and she said she had. I found that all the melons had been seen early grapes

worm had celery

;

and

and a large

and the

The

green about half the

pears.

also seen to

to,

flock of apparently

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

130

domesticated

perfectly

were

chickens

roaming over the ground/ gossiping in the hot September sun, and picking up

any odd

trifle

that might be

left.

the whole, the garden could not have

been better seen

though

;

would

take a sharp eye to see the potato-vines amid the rampant grass and weeds.

The new

strawberry-plants, for one

had taken advantage of my ab sence. Every one of them had sent out thing,

scarlet runners as

many

Some

tribe has.

them had blossomed

and a few had gone ripe berries,

hanging

an Indian ;

so far as to bear

long, pear-shaped fruit,

the

East-Indian bride.

ear-pendants of an I could not bat

admire the persistence of these zealous to plants, which seemed determined propagate

and in

roots,

themselves

both by

seeds

and make sure of immortality

some way.

Even the Colfax

variety

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. was

131

After

as ambitious as the others.

having seen the declining letter of Mr. Colfax, I did not suppose that this vine

would run any more, and intended to root it out. But one can never say

what these let

this

politicians

variety

next election, at that the fruit If there

that really itself to

grow least

;

small,

;

until

and

I shall

the

after

although I hear

and rather sour.

any variety of strawberries declines to run, and devotes

a private

life

should like to get here, since Doolittle

mean

it.

of fruit-bearing, I

may mention

are on politics, that the

raspberries

had sprawled

over the strawberry-beds

so true

all

makes strange bed-fellows. But- another enemy had come into the

that politics

strawberries, which, after all that

been said in these papers, I ashamed to mention. But preacher in the

pulpit,

has

almost

does

Sunday

the after

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

132

year, shrink from

Sunday, year after speaking of sin greatest

I refer, of course, to the

enemy

of mankind,

p-sl-y."

The ground was carpeted with it. I should think that this was the tenth crop of the season as the

soil is

was

no reason

I see

first.

northern

and

;

not as

good our

why

prolific as that

the tropics, and will not produce as many crops in the year. The mistake

we make

in trying to force things

that are not natural to

doubt, that, "

pusley,"

have no

we. turn our attention to

we can beat

had no

it.

the world.

until

idea,

recently,

how

generally this simple and thrifty plant is Far beyond what I feared and hated.

had regarded

as the

bounds of

civiliza

tion, it is held as

one of the mysteries

of a fallen world

;

home

accompanying

the

missionary on his wanderings, and preceding the footsteps of the Tract

MY SUMMER I was,

Society.

Adirondacks.

IN A GARDEN-.

133

not long ago, in the

had

built a

camp

for

the night, in the heart of the woods, high up on John s Brbok, and near the foot of

Mount Marcy

lovely spot now.

can see the

was on the bank of

the crystal, rocky stream, at the foot of

high and slender falls, which poured Out of this into a broad amber basin. basin

we had

just taken trout

enough

our supper, which had been killed, and roasted over the fire on sharp sticks, and eaten before they had an opportu

for

nity to feel the chill of this deceitful

were lying under the hut of spruce-bark, on fragrant hemlock-

world.

"We

boughs, talking, after supper. In front of us was a huge fire of birch-logs ; and over

could see the top of the falls glistening in the moonlight ; and the roar of the falls, and the brawling of the it

stream near us,

filled

all

the

ancient

MY SUMMER

134

IN A GARDEN.

was a scene upon which one would think no thought of sin could woods.

enter.

Phelps, the

were guide.

talking

with

Old Phelps

old is

once guide, philosopher, and friend. He knows the woods and streams and moun tains,

and their savage inhabitants,

well as

we know

all

our rich relations,

and what they are doing and, in lonely bear-hunts and sable-trappings, he has ;

thought out and solved most of the problems of life. As he stands in his wood-gear, he

as grizzly as

an old cedar-

and he speaks in a high falsetto voice, which would be invaluable to a boatswain in a storm at sea. tree

;

had been talking of all subjects about which rational men are interest ed, its

bears, panthers, trapping, the

of trout, the

tariff,

hab

the internal revenue

(to wit, the injustice of laying such a tax

on tobacco, and none on dogs

There

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. ain

no dog in the United

States,"

the guide, at the top of his voice,

earns his living

"),

135

says that

the Adventists, the

Gorner Grat, Horace Greeley, religion, the propagation of seeds in the wilder ness (as, for instance, where were the seeds lying for ages that spring up into certain plants and flowers as soon as a

anywhere in the most remote forest and why does a growth of oak-trees always come up after a spot

cleared ;

growth of pine has been removed ?) in short, we had pretty nearly reached a solution of

many

suddenly

exclaimed

when Phelps with uncommon

mysteries,

energy, Wall, there

one thing that beats

"What s

we asked with un

that?"

disguised curiosity. "

That

tone of a

he replied, in the who has come to one

pusley

man

136

MY SUMMER IN

door in

life

which

from which he "

Where

hopelessly shut, and

retires in despair.

comes from

nor what to do with

garden; and beats

A GARDEN.

it.

don

I can t get rid

know, in

It s

it.

my It

me."

About

pusley

the

guide had no

theory and no hope. A feeling of awe came over me, as we lay there at mid night, hushed by the sound of the

stream and the rising wind in the spruceThen, man can go nowhere that tops. "

pusley

will

not attend him.

Though

he camp on the Upper Au Sable, or penetrate the forest where rolls the Allegash, and hears no sound save his own allegations, he will not escape it. It

has entered

the

Keene, although there there,

happy valley of is

yet no church

and only a feeble school part of

Sin travels faster than they I take my hoe, that ride in chariots.

the year.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

137

warring

and begin

;

but I feel that I

against something whose roots take hold

onll.

the time a

man

he learns that he tations,

and that

gets to be eighty,

compassed by limi there has been a

natural boundary set to his individual

powers.

As he goes on

life,

he begins

to doubt his ability to destroy all evil

and

to reform all abuses,

that there will be

he has done.

much

and

to suspect

left to

do after

stepped into my garden in the spring, not doubting that I should be easily master of the weeds. I have I

simply learned that an institution which is at least six thousand years old, and I believe six millions, is not to be put

down I

in one season.

have been digging

potatoes, if

anybody cares to know it. I planted them in what are called Early Kose," "

the rows

little

less

than three feet

MY SUMMER

138

apart

;

IN A GARDEN.

but the vines came to an early

close in the drought.

Digging potatoes a pleasant, soothing occupation, but not poetical. It is good for the mind, is

unless they are too small (as

mine are)

;

when

begets a want of

What

gratitude to the bountiful earth.

small potatoes

with what

all

we might be

think they

many

us, for

felt

room enough.

the lack of

this

them seemed ashamed

out so small.

one

put in the plough next

I shall

year, and give the tubers I

compared don t

are,

plough deep enough, any of thing.

many

There

year

come

great pleasure in

turning out the brown-jacketed fellows into the sunshine of a royal September day, and seeing

them

glisten as they lie

thickly strewn on the

warm soil.

few such moments.

But then they must

be picked up. world,

The picking-up,

Life has

in this

always the unpleasant part of

it.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

139

SIXTEENTH WEEK.

not hold myself bound to answer

the question, Does gardening pay?

It is so difficult to define

what

meant by

paying. There is a popular notion, that, unless a thing pays, you had better let and I may say that there is a it alone ;

will not let a man or public opinion that woman continue in the indulgence of a

And public fancy that does not pay. the legislature, opinion is stronger than and nearly as strong as the ten com mandments: lar

clamor

I therefore yield to

when

popu

I discuss the profit of

garden. As I look at

it,

you might

Does a sunset pay set

know

commonly looked on

as well ask,

that a sun as a

cheap

MY SUMMER

140

IN A GARDEN.

entertainment; but

really one of

the most expensive. It is true that we can all have front seats, and we do not exactly need to dress for the

dear.

we do

but the conditions

opera;

which

Among

for

under

be enjoyed are rather them I should name a

including some not trifling ornament, including back hair for one sex, or the parting of it in suit

good

clothes,

the middle for the other.

I should

add

good dinner, well cooked and di and the cost of a fair educa gestible also a

;

tion,

extended, perhaps, through genera which sensibility and love of

tions in

What

beauty grew.

man

mean

is,

that if

hungry and naked, and half a savage, or with the love of beauty un developed in him, a sunset is thrown a

away on him

appears that the conditions of the enjoyment of a sunset :

so that

are as costly as zation.

any thing

in our civili

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. Of

course, there

141

no such thing as

absolute value in this world.

You

can

only estimate what a thing is worth to Does gardening in a city pay? you.

You might

as well ask if

pays to keep hens, or a trotting-horse, or to wear a gold ring, or to keep your lawn cut, or

your hair

It is as

cut.

a certain sense,

it is

tion to consider if to set a

you

it.

a sort of profana

garden pays, or

my delight could not put it you Job had the right idea in his

money-value upon

I fear that

it.

money.

Is there any mind, when he asked, taste in the white of an egg ? Sup there not is I What shall set a pose "

price crisp

upon the tender asparagus or the lettuce, which made the sweet

spring a reality

Shall I turn into

mer

chandise the red strawberry, the pale green pea, the high-flavored raspberry, the sanguinary beet, that love-plant the

142

3/7

SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

tomato, and the

waste

its

corn which did

sweetness on the desert

but, after flowing in a sweet all

our

summer

life,

mingled

rill

not air,

through

at last with

the engaging bean in a pool of succo

compute in figures what daily freshness and health and delight tash

Shall I

the garden yields, let alone the large

crop of anticipation I gathered as soon

above ground ? I appeal to any gardening man of sound mind, if that which pays him best in as the first seeds got

gardening

show

not that which he cannot

Yet

in his trial-balance.

to public opinion,

make such

when

a balance

;

I yield

proceed to and I do it with

the utmost confidence in figures. I select as a representative vegetable,

in order to estimate the cost of

ing, the potato. shall

garden

statement, I

not include the interest on the

value of the land.

throw

in the land,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. because idle

would otherwise have stood

the thing generally raised on city

land

143

taxes.

I therefore

make

the

fol

lowing statement of the cost and income a part of it esti mated in connection with other garden

potato-crop,

labor.

have tried

satisfy the

make

income-tax collector

so as to

Dr.

Ploughing .......................... Seed ................................ Manure ............................. Assistance in planting and digging, 3 days

Labor of

$0.50 1.50

8.00 6.75

self in planting, hoeing, digging,

picking up, 5 days at 17 cents ........

.85

Total cost .......................

$17.60

Two thousand five hundred mealy potatoes, at 2 cents ..........................

Small potatoes given to neighbor

$50.00

pig ...

.50

Total return .....................

$50.50 $32.90

Balance, profit in cellar ............

Some tion.

of these items need

have charged nothing

explana for

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

144

own time

waiting for the potatoes to My time in hoeing, fighting

grow.

put in at five days it have been a little more. Nor have

weeds, &c.,

may

put in any thing for cooling drinks while hoeing. I leave this out from

recommend

principle, because I always

water to others.

had some

in fixing the rate of

was the

first

my own

difficulty It

wages.

time that I had an oppor

tunity of paying what I thought labor

was worth

;

and

a good thing of it

right

down

I it

determined to make for once.

I figured

European

prices,

seventeen cents a day for unskilled bor. Of course, I boarded myself.

la I

ought to say that I fixed the wages after the work was done, or I might have been tempted to do as some ma sons

did

who worked

dollars a day.

and

They

for

lay in the

four

shade

slept the sleep of honest toil

full

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. half the time,

145

the

at least all

time

have reason to believe, that when the wages of mechanics are I

was away.

raised to eight

the

workmen

and ten

will

dollars a day,

not come at

all

they send their cards. merely I do not see any possible fault in the :

will

above

ought to say that I de ferred putting a value on the potatoes until I had footed up the debit column. This

figures.

always the safest

way

to do.

had twenty-five bushels.

I roughly es

timated that there are

one

good ones

own

to the bushel.

market-price, I

apiece for them.

hundred

Making

asked two cents

This. I should

have

considered dirt cheap last June, when I was going down the rows with the hoe.

any one thinks that two cents each high, let him try to raise them. If

Nature

is "awful smart."

be complimentary in saying 10

I intend to so.

She

MY SUMMER

146

shows

IN A GARDEN.

in little things.

men few mod

have

attempt to put in a est turnips, near the close of the season.

tioned

sowed the

seeds,

by the way, in the most

liberal

manner.

rows

presume I put enough to sow an came and they all came up, thick as grass, as crowded and

acre

I ;

Into three or four short

useless as babies in a Chinese village.

course, they

had

be thinned out

;

and pretty much all pulled up it took me a long time ; for it takes a conscientious man some time to decide that

is,

;

which are the best and healthiest plants to spare.

That

After

I spared too

all,

many.

the great danger everywhere in this world (it may not be in the next) ; is

things are too thick

ing for too much.

we lose all in grasp

The Scotch

say, that

no man ought to thin out his own tur nips, because he will not sacrifice enough to leave

room

for the

remainder to grow

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

147

should get his neighbor, who does not But this is care for the plants, to do it.

lie

mere there

and aside from the point

talk, is

these agricultural papers,

it is

avoid in

I desire to

any thing

digression.

I did think, that putting in these tur

nips so late in the season,

when

general in a remote has and ceased, part activity of the garden, they would pass un

But Nature never even winks, can see. The tender blades were

noticed. as I

scarcely out

of the ground,

sent a small black

fly,

when

which seemed to

have been born and held in reserve this purpose,

speedily

its

to cut the leaves.

made lace-work

for

They

of the whole

Thus every thing appears

bed.

she

have

enemy,

except, perhaps, ever troubles that. y nothing p Did the Concord Grape ever come to special :

luscious perfection than this year

or yield

abundantly

The golden

MY SUMMER

148

IN A GARDEN.

sunshine has passed into them, and dis

tended their purple skins almost to Such heavy clusters! such bursting.

bloom

such sweetness

such meat and

drink in their round globes! fine fellow

What

Bacchus would have been,

a if

he had only signed the pledge when he was a young man! I have taken off clusters

most

that were as compact and

as large as the Black

Hamburgs.

slow work picking them. I do not see how the gatherers for the vintage ever get off enough. It takes so long

It is

disentangle

the bunches from the

and the interlacing vines, and the supporting tendrils and then I like to

leaves,

;

hold up each bunch and look at it in the sunlight, and get the fragrance tmd the

and show

making herself useful,

bloom of

it,

who is taster and com

to Polly,

panion, at the foot of the ladder, before

dropping

into the basket.

But we

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

140

have other company. The robin, the most knowing and greedy bird out of paradise (I trust he will always be kept out), has discovered that the grape-crop is

uncommonly good, and has come back,

with his whole tribe and family, larger than it was in pea-time. He knows the

bunches as well as anybody, and them all. If he would take a whole

ripest tries

bunch here and ber,

and be

off

num

there, say half the

with

it,

I should

much

care.

away

at all the bunches,

many

But he

he can.

will not.

It is

and

not so

pecks

spoils as

time he went

south.

There

no prettier

sight, to

eye,

than a gardener on a ladder in his grapearbor,

the

these golden days, selecting

heaviest

clusters

grapes,

and

handing them down to one and another of a group of neighbors and friends, who stand under the shade

of the leaves,

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

150

flecked with the sunlight, and cry, sweet!"

"What

nice

ones!"

remarks encouraging to the

like,

on the ladder.

How

and the

man

It is great pleasure to

see people eat grapes.

Moral Truth.

have no doubt that

grapes taste best in other peoples mouths. It is an old notion that it is easier to be generous than to be stingy.

convinced that the majority of peo ple would be generous from selfish mo

tives, if

they had the opportunity.

Philosophical Observation.

shows one who perity

and ripe

fruit.

had a good

friend in the country,

whom

never

visited

By your

fruits

Nothing

his friends are, like pros

except

you

shall

almost

cherry-time.

know them.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

151

SEVENTEENTH WEEK.

go into the garden these warm latter days, and muse. To muse like to

-*is

to sit in the sun,

and not think of

I am not sure but goodness any thing. comes out of people who bask in the

does out of a sweet apple roasted before the fire. The late Sep sun, as

tember and October sun of

this latitude

something like the sun of extreme Lower Italy you can stand a good deal of it, and apparently soak a winter sup is

ply into the system. If one only could take in his winter fuel in this way The !

next great discovery the

will,

very

conservation of sunlight.

likely,

In the

correlation of forces, I look to see the

day when the superfluous sunshine

will

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

152

be utilized

;

as, for instance,

that which

has burned up my celery this year will be converted into a force to work the garden. % This sitting in the sun amid the evidences of a ripe year is the easiest part of gardening I have experienced.

But what a combat has gone on here

What

vegetable passions have run the whole gamut of ambition, selfishness,

greed of place, fruition, satiety, and now rest here in the truce of exhaustion !

What upon

a battle-field, it

nition,

the

one

The corn has

and stacked arms,

militia sort of style.

are

may

lost its

look

ammu

in a slovenly,

The ground vines

trampled, and withered ; and ungathered cucumbers, worthless

torn,

melons, and golden squashes, lie about like the spent bombs and exploded So the cannonshells of a battle-field. balls lay

on the sandy plain before Fort

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

Fisher, after the capture.

grassy

meadow

So the great,

Munich, any morning is strewn with

during the October Fest, the empty beer-mugs. stantly repeats

History

There

itself.

crop of moral reflections in

which anybody

who I

153

con

a large

garden,

at liberty to gather

passes this way.

have tried to get

offered temptation to

be no thieves steal

;

and

any thing that sin. There would in

there was nothing to

I suppose, in

catechism, the provider thief; and, probably, I

the thieves as

bad as the

blame

for

leaving out a few winter-pears, which

some predatory boy carried off on Sun day. At first, I was angry, and said I should like to have caught the urchin in the act ; but, on second thought, I was glad I did not. The interview could not have been pleasant. I shouldn t have known what to do with him. The

MY SUMMER

154

IN A GARDEN.

chances are, that he would have escaped away with his pockets full, and jibed at

from a safe distance.

got

hands on him,

been

still

And, I

if I

had

should have

more embarrassed.

If I

had

flogged him, he would have got over it a good deal sooner than I should. That

boy does not mind castigation any more than he does tearing his trousers in the briers. If I had treated sort of

him with kindness, and conciliated him with grapes, showing him the enormity of his offence, I suppose he would have come the next night, and taken the re

mainder of the grapes.

The

truth

is,

that the public morality is lax on the If anybody puts subject of fruit. arsenic or

gunpowder

melons, he

into his

growing

water

universally denounced as

a stingy old murderer by the nity.

great

many

people

fruit as lawful prey,

commu regard

who would

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

155

not think of breaking into your cellar to take it. I found a man once in my raspberry-bushes, early in the

when we were

Upon

ripen.

season,

waiting for a dish-full to

was

inquiring what he

about, he said he was only eating

some

;

and the operation seemed and simple, that I disliked to disturb to be so natu

ral

And

not very sure that one has a right to the whole of an abundant crop of fruit until he has gathered it. him.

a city garden, one might as well conform his theory to the practice least, in

of the community.

As looks

for

children if

the

(and

sometimes

chief products

garden were small boys and hens), it is admitted that they are barbarians. There is

no exception among them

condition of barbarism.

This

this

not to

for say that they are not attractive they have the virtues as well as the ;

MY SUMMER

156

IN A GARDEN.

vices of a primitive people.

by some

It is held

naturalists, that the

child

only a zoophyte, with a stomach, and feelers radiating from it in search of

something to

It is true that a

it.

always hungry all over but he also curious all over and his curiosity is

child is

fill

;

excited about as early as his hunger.

immediately begins to put out his moral feelers into the unknown and the infinite

discover what

existence this

into

sort

of an

which he has come.

His imagination is quite as hungry as his stomach. And again and again it is stronger than his other appetites. You

can easily engage his imagination in a story which will

make him

forget his

credulous and supersti In this, tious, and open to all wonder.

dinner.

exactly like

the

savage

races.

Both gorge themselves on the marvel lous and all the unknown is marvellous ;

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. to

them.

is,

that

know

157

the general impression

must be

children

governed

I think they through their stomachs. can be controlled quite as well through

their curiosity

;

that being the

more crav

ing and imperious of the two. I have seen children follow about a person who stories,

and interested them

with his charming

talk, as greedily as if

them

told

had been

his pockets

Perhaps

full

this fact has

lation to gardening

;

of bon-bons.

no practical re but it occurs to

paper the outside of my high board fence with the leaves of The Arabian Nights," it would afford me

me,

that, if I should

a good deal of protection, more, in fact, than spikes in the top, which tear trou sers,

and encourage profanity, but do not

much

spiked fence is a challenge to any boy of spirit. But, if the fence were papered with fairy-tales,

save

fruit.

would he not stop

to read

them

until

158

MY SUMMER IN A

was too

garden? is

him

late for

don

GARDEN.

to climb into the

Human nature

know.

The boy might regard the

vicious.

picture of the garden of the Hesperi-

only as an advertisement of what was over the fence. I begin to find that the problem of raising fruit is nothing des

to that of getting

So long spects,

after it has matured.

the law, just in

many

in force against shooting birds

and small boys, the gardener may sow in tears and reap in vain.

The power of a boy thing fearful.

You buy and

me, some Consider what he can do. is,

out a choice peartree ; you enrich the earth for it ; you train and trim it, and vanquish the borer,

length

set

and watch it

its

slow growth.

rewards your care by produ

cing two or three pears, which you cut up and divide in the family, declaring the flavor of the bit

you eat

be some-

MY SUMMER IN A extraordinary.

tiling

the well

little

and

;

der, fruit,

GARDEN.

The next

tree blossoms in the

159

full,

year,

and

autumn has on

sets

slen

its

drooping limbs half a bushel of daily growing more delicious in the

sun.

You show

ing to

your friends, read them the French name, which you it

can never remember, on the label

you take an ful fruit

;

and

honest pride in the success

of long care.

That night your

pears shall be required of

you by a boy

Along comes an irresponsible urchin, who has not been growing much longer than the tree, with not twenty -five cents worth of clothing on him, and in five

minutes takes off every pear, and retires In five minutes, the into safe obscurity. remorseless boy has undone your

work

of years, and with the easy nonchalance, I doubt not, of any agent of fate, in

whose path nothing

And

it is

not of

sacred or safe.

much

consequence.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

160

The boy goes on

his

or to State Prison will

in either place he

accused of stealing, perhaps

You

wrongfully. is

to Congress,

way,

better to have

them, than not to

You come

learn, in time, that

had pears and have had pears at

know

lost all.

that the least (and

rarest) part of the pleasure of raising fruit

the vulgar eating

You

it.

your delight in conversing with the nurseryman, and looking at his il recall

lustrated catalogues,

where

all

the pears

drawn perfect in form, and of extra size, and at that exact moment between are

ripeness and decay which sible to hit in practice.

raised

this

it is

impos Fruit cannot be

earth to

taste

you

imagine those pears would taste. For years you have this pleasure, unalloyed

by any disenchanting reality. How you watch the tender twigs in spring, and the freshly-forming bark, hovering about

MY SUMMER

IN A GARDEN.

161

healthy growing tree with your pruning-knife many a sunny morning the

That

you

it,

happiness.

Then,

you know

are drinking the very wine of

and when the sweet juices of the earth mount the limbs, and flow down

life

;

the tender stem, ripening and reddening the pendent fruit, you feel that you

somehow stand

at the source of things,

and have no unimportant share in the Enter, at this mo processes of Nature. ment, boy the destroyer, whose office is

that of preserver as well

he removes the

fruit

;

for,

from your

though sight, it

remains in your

memory immortally ripe

and desirable.

The gardener needs

all

these consolations of a high philosophy. 11

MY SUMMER IN A

162

GARDEN.

EIGHTEENTH WEEK. EGRETS

are

yet history

idle;

one

Every thing long regret. so turned out have differently might If Ravaillac had not been imprisoned !

he would not have

for debt,

Navarre.

Henry of

Orange had escaped Philip

emissaries;

stabbed

William

assassination

France had

by fol

lowed the French Calvin, and embraced Protestant

Calvinism, as

came very

near doing towards the end of the six if the Continental teenth century ;

ammunition had not given out if Blucher had not ker s Hill ;

up"

at Waterloo

the

lesson

Bun

at "

come

is,

that

things do not come up unless they are When you go behind the hisplanted.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. torical scenery,

you

find there

163

a rope

and pulley to effect every transforma tion which has astonished you. It was the rascality of a minister and a con tractor five years before that lost the battle

and the cause of the defeat was

;

worthless ammunition.

I should like to

know how many wars have been caused by fits of indigestion, and how many more dynasties have been upset by the love of

man.

woman

It is

than by the hate of only because we are ill in

formed that any thing surprises us and we are disappointed because we

;

expect that for which we have not pro vided. I

had too vague expectations of what garden would do of itself. A

garden ought to thing,

produce

one

every

just as a business ought to sup

port a man, and a house ought to keep itself. had a convention lately to

MY SUMMER

164

but

itself;

the

that

resolve

won

lively time in our

but

seems to

show

for

campaign

Where It

fruits of

for

;

house should keep There has been a

there

very

and Lorraine

sass

we have but we desire, I

;

lived on the

that

one thing.

little

the indemnity

the war.

summer

has been a terrible

all

this

garden

but where

;

are

country

me It

it.

true

IN A GARDE X.

besides,

the

There are no onions, -am quite ashamed to

take people into my garden, and have them notice the absence of onions. It

very marked. In onion is strength and a garden without it lacks flavor.

The

;

onion

among and

its

satin

have a

after coat,

and,

the most beautiful of vegetables ; is the only one that represents

the essence of things. said to

wrappings

when

soul.

can almost be

You

take off coat

and the onion

the last one

removed, who

still

there

;

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. dare say that the

onion

165

itself

you can weep over

stroyed, though

If there

departed spirit?

its

any one

thing on this fallen earth that the angels in heaven weep over more than another, it is

the onion.

know

that there

prejudice

supposed to be a the onion but I is

against ; think there is rather a cowardice

regard to

it.

doubt not that

and women love the onion "confess

their love.

;

all

men

but few

Affection for

Good New-England ers

concealed.

are

shy of owning it as they are of talk Some people have ing about religion. what days on which they eat onions, as

you might

call

"Thursdays."

"retreats/

The

act

or their

in the nature

of a religious ceremony, an Eleusinian mystery: not a breath of it must get

abroad.

company

;

that

day, they see

they deny the kiss of greet-

MY SUMMER

1C6

IN A GARDEN.

ing to the dearest friend

;

they retire

within themselves, and hold communion

with one of the most pungent and pene moral trating manifestations of the vegetable world. Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions to

time being, from the world, and have a

separate

harmony of here

eat,

aspiration.

the

for

become

are, for the

They

gether.

reformers.

apostles"

and preach

circulate

seeds.

There

of the onion it

a hint

Let

them

;

let

them

to their fellows,

and of

the form

In the onion

the

tracts

universal brotherhood. eat onions at

all

If all

hope of

men

times, they will

will

come

a universal sympathy. Look at I hope I am not mistaken as to Italy. into

It was the the cause of her unity. Reds who preached the gospel which All the Reds of made it possible.

Europe,

all

the sworn devotees of the

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

vegetable. It is

it.

common

eat of the

Mary Ann,

mystic

167

Their oaths are strong with the food, also, of the common

people of Italy. All the social atmos phere of that delicious land is laden

with

Its

it.

odor

racy.

there

one

faith,

entrance of Victor is

democ

a practical

In the churches

all

are

alike

one smell.

Emanuel

into

The

Eome

only the pompous proclamation of a

unity which garlic had already accom and yet we, who boast of our plished ;

democracy, eat onions in secret. I now see that I have left out

many

of the most moral elements.

Neither

onions, parsnips, carrots, nor

cabbages

have never seen a garden in the autumn before, without the un are here.

couth cabbage in it ; but my garden gives the impression of a garden with out a head. Holland.

The cabbage

the rose of

admire the force by which

MY SUMMER IN

168

compacts head.

its

The

A GARDEN.

leaves into

crisp

secret of

less to the world.

a solid

would be price should see less

expansive foreheads with nothing within. Even the largest cabbages are not always

But

mention these things, not from any sympathy I have with the vegetables named, but to show how hard the best.

it is

go contrary to the expectations

of society. to

Society expects every

have certain

Not

man

things in his garden.

to raise cabbage

as if

one had no

Perhaps we shall come some day to free churches and free gar dens when I can show my neighbor

pew

in church.

;

through

the season,

tired garden, at the

when

end of

skies are overcast,

and

brown leaves are swirling down, and not mind if he does raise his eyebrows when he observes, "Ah this, and of that." !

you have none of At present, we want

I see

the moral courage to plant only

what we

MY SUMMER IN A need

;

spend only what

over the fence.

but conformity ruined without it

going on are half ruined by

should be wholly

;

make

169

will bring us

what

regardless of

peace,

GARDEN.

and

I .presume I shall

a garden next year that will be as

popular as possible. this brings

crisis in life.

And be a

what

horticulture, floriculture,

but

Agriculture, -

these are vast

may wander away,

which one

and neve r be seen more.

may

begin to feel the

temptation of experiment. fields, into

I see

seemed

a very simple thing, this gardening it

;

It is

opens up astonishingly.

like the infinite possibilities in worsted-

work.

Polly sometimes says to me,

wish you would

call

Bobbin

match that skein of worsted

you are

town."

for

Time was

and

me when I

used to

accept such a commission with alacrity

and self-confidence.

went

Bobbin

MY SUMMER

170

and asked one of

IN A GARDEN.

young men, with me some of

his

easy indifference, to give

The young man, who

that.

hand

some a young man as ever I looked at, and who appears to own the shop, and whose suave superciliousness would be worth every thing to a cabinet minister

who wanted "

place, says,

repel

haven

for

applicants

an ounce

sent to Paris, and I expect

have

every day. have a good deal of difficulty in get To ting that shade in my assortment."

think that he Paris,

communication with

and perhaps with Persia

Ke-

spect for such a being gives place to awe.

go to another shop, holding fast to my There I am shown a heap scarlet clew.

with more colors and shades

stuff,

than

world.

had supposed existed

What

have been told as I could

;

in all the

a blaze of distraction to get as

and

so I

near the shade

compare and con-

MY SUMMER IN A trast, till

GARDEN.

171

the whole thing seems to

But

about of one

color.

The

mind on nothing.

I can settle

affair

assumes a

high degree of importance. I am satis fied with nothing but perfection. I

don

shade

know what may happen not matched.

tomer

girl,

who

believe

could

that

At last

make any

green

matches the shade in a minute. five cents worth.

Women

the

go to another

shop, and another, and another.

a pretty

cus

blue, I

buy

That was the order.

most economical persons that ever were. I have spent two hours are the

in this five-cent business

say they were wasted,

;

but who

when

shall

I take the

home, and Polly says it is a perfect match, and looks so pleased, and holds it stuff

up with the work, at arm s-length, and turns her head one side, and then takes her needle, and works I

can

see,

my own

Working

in,

obligingness and

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

172

amiability with every stitch. is

Five cents

cheap for such a pleasure. The things I may do in my garden

dirt

multiply on my vision. How fascinating have the catalogues of the nurserymen Can I raise all those beautiful become !

each one of which

varieties,

ble to the other?

all

have already

of strawberries (vines)

the sorts of

fifteen varieties

;

and

have no

have hit the right one.

idea

that

Must

I subscribe to all the

prefera

Shall I try all the

kinds of grapes, and pears

and weekly papers which of the best vines

offer

magazines

premiums

that

all

the

strawberries were rolled into one, that I

could enclose

all its

lusciousness in one

good old days when a strawberry was a strawberry, and there There are was no perplexity about it

bite

for the

berries

now than churches

no one knows what to believe.

;

and have

MY SUMMER IN

173

A GARDEN.

seen gardens which were all experiment, given over to every new thing, and which produced little or nothing to the owners, except the pleasure of expecta

People grow pear-trees at great expense of time and money, which never

tion.

yield

them more than The

tree.

four pears to the

bonnets

of ladies

fashions

are nothing to the fashions of nursery

He who

attempts to follow them has a business for life but his life may

men.

;

be short. field

If I

enter upon this wide

of horticultural experiment, I shall

leave peace behind

;

and

may

expect

me and May Heaven keep me

the ground to open, and swallow all

fortune.

to the old roots

and herbs of

fore

Perhaps, in the world of mod ern reforms, this is not possible ; but I

fathers

intend

now

to cultivate only the stand

ard things, and learn to talk knowingly of the rest. Of course, one must keep

174

MY SUMMER IN

up a reputation.

A GARDEN.

have seen people greatly enjoy themselves, and elevate I

themselves in their wise

and

critical

own

talk

esteem, in a

about

all

the

choice wines, while they were sipping a decoction, the original cost of which

bore no relation to the price of grapes.

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

175

NINETEENTH WEEK. ri^HE

closing scenes are not necessa-

-*rily

funereal.

should

garden

be got ready for winter as well as for summer. When one goes into winterquarters, he wants every thing neat

and

Expecting high winds, we bring

trig.

every thing into close reef. there are who never shave

Some men (if

they are

so absurd as ever to shave), except

when

they go abroad, and who do not take care to wear polished boots in the bosoms of their families.

shaves (next to one

man who

who doesn

shave)

own conscience, and not for and who dresses as neatly at

to satisfy his

display,

home will

he does anywhere.

Such a man

be likely to put his garden in com-

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

176

snow comes, so not present a scene

plete order before the

that

its last

days

shall

of melancholy ruin and decay. I confess, that, after such

ing campaign, I

a great temptation

a drawn engage But better counsels prevailed.

to retire,

ment.

felt

an exhaust

and

call it

determined that the weeds should not

sleep on the field of battle.

them

out,

I routed

and levelled their works.

master of the situation.

If I have

a desert, I at least have peace

;

but

made it

not quite a desert. The strawberries, the raspberries, the celery, the turnips, wave green above the clean earth, with

no enemy in sight. In these golden October days, no work is more fascinating than

sun

this getting

ready for spring.

The

no longer a burning enemy, but a

friend, illuminating all the

open space, and warming the mellow soil. And the pruning and clearing-away of rubbish,

MY SUMMER and the

fertilizing,

IN A GARDEN.

177

go on with something

of the hilarity of a wake, rather than

despondency of other funerals. When the wind begins to come out of the

the north-west of set purpose,

and

sweep the ground with low and search ing fierceness, very different from the roysteriiig, jolly bluster of early fall, I

have put the strawberries under their

pruned the grape them under the soil, tied

coverlet of leaves,

vines and laid

up the tender

plants, given the

trees a good, solid

and

that the is

meal about the roots

so I turn away, writing

on the gate-post.

summer

fruit-

And

;

Resurgam

Calvin, aware

past and the harvest

ended, and that a mouse in the kitchen

worth two birds gone south, scampers away to the house with his tail in the

air.

yet I am not perfectly at rest in mind. I know that this is only a

And

MY SUMMER

178

IN A GARDEN.

truce until the parties recover their ex

hausted energies. All winter long, the forces of chemistry will be mustering

under ground, repairing the ing

strength

the

reserves,

from

losses, call

new

getting -

surface

fertilizing

bounty, and making ready for the spring

open

before I

while the snow

scarcely

They

campaign.

will

ready melted, and the ground :

not passable,

they will begin to move on and the fight will commence.

works

;

Yet how

open to the music of birds and the soft enchantment of the it

deceitfully

will

spring mornings

I shall

even be per

mitted to win a few skirmishes secret forces will even wait for

plant and sow, and show

before they

termined

come on

assault.

full

the to

hand,

heavy and de There are already in

signs of an internecine fight with the devil-grass,

which has intrenched

itself

MY SUMMER IX A

GARDEN.

in a considerable portion of It contests the

179

gardeninch ground by out is very much

patch. inch ; and digging it such labor as eating a piece of chokeIt is cherry-pie with the stones all in.

work, too, that I

know by experience

Every man own devil-grass. The

have to do alone.

shall

must eradicate neighbors

his

who have

leisure to help

in grape-picking time are all is

devil-grass

neighbors

most

visits

for their

you

busy when

aggressive.

are well timed

only their hens which have

all

My it

seasons

own. that abundant and

told

rank

weeds are signs of a rich soil; but I have noticed that a thin, poor soil grows

little

but weeds.

to think that the substratum

am is

inclined

the same,

and that the only choice in this world what kind of weeds you will have.

not

much

attracted

by the gaunt,

MY SUMMER IN

180

A GARDEN.

and the wiry thistle of upland country pastures, where the grass is always gray, as if the world were

flavorless mullein,

already weary and sick of

life.

The

awkward, uncouth wickedness of remote country-places, where culture has died

out after the

first

crop,

about as

dis

agreeable as the ranker and richer vice

of city the

life,

forced

juices

There

the rich

artificial

an overfed

heat and

civilization.

doubt, that, on the whole,

110

the best

soil is

the fruit of

has body and flavor. To what affluence does a woman (to take an instance, thank

Heaven, which

common) grow, with

favoring circumstances, under the stim ulus of the richest social and intellec tual influences

aware that there

has been a good deal said in poetry about the fringed gentian and the hare bell of I

know

rocky that

and waysides, and possible for maidens to

districts

it is

3/r

SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

181

bloom in very slight soil into a wildwood grace and beauty yet, the world ;

they

through,

charms,

lack

that tropic

wealth

that

affluence

of both

person and .mind, which higher and more culture brings

the

pas sion as well as the- soul glowing in the

stimulating

Neither persons nor plants are ever fully themselves until Cloth-of-Gold rose.

they are cultivated to their highest. I, for one, have no fear that society will be

much

The only question and about keeping down the weeds

too

enriched.

;

have learned by experience, that we need new sorts of hoes, and more dis I

position to use them.

Moral Deduction. tween

soil

The

and society

bury decay in the earth the perishing

feed

;

evident.

plant in

with offensive

but nothing grows out of it that not clean ; it gives us back life and

refuse is

;

difference be

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN.

182

our rubbish.

for

beauty

us what

give

it.

Pretending

Society returns

reflect

these

upon

things, but, in reality, watching the bluejays,

who

are pecking at the purple ber

ries of the

woodbine on the south gable,

approach the house. Polly is picking up chestnuts on the sward, regardless of I

the high wind, which rattles them about her head and upon the glass roof of her

winter-garden. filled

with

make

las

The garden,

thrifty

plants,

see,

which

will

always summer there. The calabout the fountain will be in flower

by Christmas

the

appears to keep that holiday in her secret heart all summer. I close the outer windows as :

we go along, and that we are ready

plant

congratulate myself for winter.

For the

winter-garden I have no responsibility I am Polly has entire charge of it. :

only required to keep

heated, and not

MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. too hot either

;

smoke

death of the bugs

;

183

often for the

to water

once a

day to move this and that into the sun and out of the sun pretty constantly: -,

but she does

all

the work.

never

relinquish that theory.

As we

pass around the house, I dis

cover a boy in the ravine, filling a bag with chestnuts and hickory-nuts. They are not plenty this year

;

and

I suggest

the propriety of leaving some for us. The boy is a little slow to take the idea :

but he has apparently found the picking poor, and exhausted it ; for, as he turns

away down the "

The

me with, you tell me where

Mister, I say, can

I can find

me.

glen,

hails

some walnuts ?

coolness of this world grows

It is

upon

time to go in and light a

wood-fire on the hearth.

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STAMPED BELOW

AN INITIAL FINE OF

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WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE.

1575"

21-100m-8, 34

Warner lay

Uu 19

2474^

952 W27

suiamer in a garden

i9]sf.^A^Q*

CATALOG CARDS fe=BE WITHDRA

247482

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BERKEL