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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Summer in a Garden, and Calvin, A Study Of Character + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: August 22, 2006 [EBook #3135] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUMMER IN A GARDEN *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + SUMMER IN A GARDEN + </h1> + <h3> + and + </h3> + <h1> + CALVIN, <br /> + </h1> + <h2> + A STUDY OF CHARACTER + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Charles Dudley Warner + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0010}.jpg" alt="{0010}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0010}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> INTRODUCTORY LETTER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> BY WAY OF DEDICATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> PRELIMINARY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> FIRST WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> SECOND WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THIRD WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> FOURTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> FIFTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> SIXTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> SEVENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> EIGHTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> NINTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> TENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> ELEVENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> TWELFTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> THIRTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> FOURTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> FIFTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> SIXTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> SEVENTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> EIGHTEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> NINETEENTH WEEK </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> <b>CALVIN</b> </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + INTRODUCTORY LETTER + </h2> + <p> + MY DEAR MR. FIELDS,—I did promise to write an Introduction to these + charming papers but an Introduction,—what is it?—a sort of + pilaster, put upon the face of a building for looks' sake, and usually + flat,—very flat. Sometimes it may be called a caryatid, which is, as + I understand it, a cruel device of architecture, representing a man or a + woman, obliged to hold up upon his or her head or shoulders a structure + which they did not build, and which could stand just as well without as + with them. But an Introduction is more apt to be a pillar, such as one may + see in Baalbec, standing up in the air all alone, with nothing on it, and + with nothing for it to do. + </p> + <p> + But an Introductory Letter is different. There is in that no formality, no + assumption of function, no awkward propriety or dignity to be sustained. 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. + </p> + <p> + Sluggards have been sent to the ant for wisdom; but writers might better + be sent to the spider, not because he works all night, and watches all + day, but because he works unconsciously. He dare not even bring his work + before his own eyes, but keeps it behind him, as if too much knowledge of + what one is doing would spoil the delicacy and modesty of one's work. + </p> + <p> + Almost all graceful and fanciful work is born like a dream, that comes + noiselessly, and tarries silently, and goes as a bubble bursts. And yet + somewhere work must come in,—real, well-considered work. + </p> + <p> + Inness (the best American painter of Nature in her moods of real human + feeling) once said, “No man can do anything in art, unless he has + intuitions; but, between whiles, one must work hard in collecting the + materials out of which intuitions are made.” The truth could not be hit + off better. Knowledge is the soil, and intuitions are the flowers which + grow up out of it. The soil must be well enriched and worked. + </p> + <p> + It is very plain, or will be to those who read these papers, now gathered + up into this book, as into a chariot for a race, that the author has long + employed his eyes, his ears, and his understanding, in observing and + considering the facts of Nature, and in weaving curious analogies. Being + an editor of one of the oldest daily news-papers in New England, and + obliged to fill its columns day after day (as the village mill is obliged + to render every day so many sacks of flour or of meal to its hungry + customers), it naturally occurred to him, “Why not write something which I + myself, as well as my readers, shall enjoy? The market gives them facts + enough; politics, lies enough; art, affectations enough; criminal news, + horrors enough; 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?” + </p> + <p> + The suggestion ripened into execution. Men and women read, and wanted + more. These garden letters began to blossom every week; and many hands + were glad to gather pleasure from them. A sign it was of wisdom. 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 distill as + the dew. + </p> + <p> + The love of rural life, the habit of finding enjoyment in familiar things, + that susceptibility to Nature which keeps the nerve gently thrilled in her + homliest nooks and by her commonest sounds, is worth a thousand fortunes + of money, or its equivalents. + </p> + <p> + Every book which interprets the secret lore of fields and gardens, every + essay that brings men nearer to the understanding of the mysteries which + every tree whispers, every brook murmurs, every weed, even, hints, is a + contribution to the wealth and the happiness of our kind. And if the lines + of the writer shall be traced in quaint characters, and be filled with a + grave humor, or break out at times into merriment, all this will be no + presumption against their wisdom or his goodness. Is the oak less strong + and tough because the mosses and weather-stains stick in all manner of + grotesque sketches along its bark? Now, truly, one may not learn from this + little book either divinity or horticulture; but if he gets a pure + happiness, and a tendency to repeat the happiness from the simple stores + of Nature, he will gain from our friend's garden what Adam lost in his, + and what neither philosophy nor divinity has always been able to restore. + </p> + <p> + Wherefore, thanking you for listening to a former letter, which begged you + to consider whether these curious and ingenious papers, that go winding + about like a half-trodden path between the garden and the field, might not + be given in book-form to your million readers, I remain, yours to command + in everything but the writing of an Introduction, + </p> + <p> + HENRY WARD BEECHER. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BY WAY OF DEDICATION + </h2> + <p> + MY DEAR POLLY,—When a few of these papers had appeared in “The + Courant,” I was encouraged to continue them by hearing that they had at + least one reader who read them with the serious mind from which alone + profit is to be expected. It was a maiden lady, who, I am sure, was no + more to blame for her singleness than for her age; and she looked to these + honest sketches of experience for that aid which the professional + 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 an increased practical turn to my reports of what I know about + gardening. The thought that I had misled a lady, whose age is 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. + </p> + <p> + You know that this attempt to tell the truth about one of the most + fascinating occupations in the world has not been without its dangers. I + have received anonymous letters. Some of them were murderously spelled; + others were missives in such elegant phrase and dress, that danger was + only to be apprehended in them by one skilled in the mysteries of medieval + poisoning, when death flew on the wings of a perfume. One lady, whose + entreaty that I should pause had something of command in it, wrote that my + strictures on “pusley” had so inflamed her husband's zeal, that, in her + absence in the country, he had rooted up all her beds of portulaca (a sort + of cousin of the fat weed), and utterly cast it out. It is, however, to be + expected, that retributive justice would visit the innocent as well as the + guilty of an offending family. This is only another proof of the wide + sweep of moral forces. I suppose that it is as necessary in the vegetable + world as it is elsewhere to avoid the appearance of evil. + </p> + <p> + In offering you the fruit of my garden, which has been gathered from week + to week, without much reference to the progress of the crops or the + drought, I desire to 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 solstice, you had been, either with hoe, + rake, or miniature spade, of the least use in the garden; but your + suggestions have been invaluable, and, whenever used, have been paid for. + Your horticultural inquiries have been of a nature to astonish the + vegetable world, if it listened, and were a constant inspiration to + research. There was almost nothing that you did not wish to know; and + this, added to what I wished to know, made a boundless field for + discovery. What might have become of the garden, if your advice had been + followed, a good Providence only knows; but I never worked there without a + consciousness that you might at any moment come down the walk, under the + grape-arbor, bestowing glances of approval, that were none the worse for + not being critical; exercising a sort of superintendence that elevated + gardening into a fine art; expressing a wonder that was as complimentary + to me as it was to Nature; bringing an atmosphere which made the garden a + region of romance, the soil of which was set apart for fruits native to + climes unseen. It was this bright presence that filled the garden, as it + did the summer, with light, and now leaves upon it that tender play of + color and bloom which is called among the Alps the after-glow. + </p> + <p> + NOOK FARM, HARTFORD, October, 1870 + </p> + <p> + C. D. W. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PRELIMINARY + </h2> + <p> + The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions, as it is the latest. + Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are + dirty, we are pure. 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 all its moods. + The love of digging in the ground (or of looking on while he pays another + to dig) is as sure to come back to him as he is sure, at last, to go under + the ground, and stay there. To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a + hoe, to plant seeds and watch, their renewal of life, this is the + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Venio nunc ad voluptates agricolarum, quibus ego incredibiliter delector: + quae nec ulla impediuntur senectute, et mihi ad sapientis vitam proxime + videntur accedere.” (I am driven to Latin because New York editors have + exhausted the English language in the praising of spring, and especially + of the month of May.) + </p> + <p> + Let us celebrate the soil. Most men toil that they may own a piece of it; + they measure their success in life by their ability to buy it. It is alike + the passion of the parvenu and the pride of the aristocrat. Broad acres + are a patent of nobility; and no man but feels more, of a man in the world + if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is + on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very + handsome property. And there is a great pleasure in working in the soil, + apart from the ownership of it. The man who has planted a garden feels + that he has done something for the good of the World. He belongs to the + producers. It is a pleasure to eat of the fruit of one's toil, if it be + nothing more than a head of lettuce or an ear of corn. One cultivates a + lawn even with great satisfaction; for there is nothing more beautiful + than grass and turf in our latitude. The tropics may have their delights, + but they have not turf: and the world without turf is a dreary desert. The + original Garden of Eden could not have had such turf as one sees in + England. The Teutonic races all love turf: they emigrate in the line of + its growth. + </p> + <p> + To dig in the mellow soil-to dig moderately, for all pleasure should be + taken sparingly—is a great thing. One gets strength out of the + ground as often as one really touches it with a hoe. Antaeus (this is a + classical article) was no doubt an agriculturist; and such a prize-fighter + as Hercules could n't do anything with him till he got him to lay down his + spade, and quit the soil. It is not simply beets and potatoes and corn and + string-beans that one raises in his well-hoed garden: it is the average of + human life. There is life in the ground; it goes into the seeds; and it + also, when it is stirred up, goes into the man who stirs it. The hot sun + on his back as he bends to his shovel and hoe, or contemplatively rakes + the warm and fragrant loam, is better than much medicine. The buds are + coming out on the bushes round about; the blossoms of the fruit trees + begin to show; the blood is running up the grapevines in streams; you can + smell the Wild flowers on the near bank; and the birds are flying and + glancing and singing everywhere. To the open kitchen door comes the busy + housewife to shake a white something, and stands a moment to look, quite + transfixed by the delightful sights and sounds. Hoeing in the garden on a + bright, soft May day, when you are not obliged to, is nearly equal to the + delight of going trouting. + </p> + <p> + Blessed be agriculture! if one does not have too much of it. All + literature is fragrant with it, in a gentlemanly way. At the foot of the + charming olive-covered hills of Tivoli, Horace (not he of Chappaqua) had a + sunny farm: it was in sight of Hadrian's villa, who did landscape + gardening on an extensive scale, and probably did not get half as much + comfort out of it as Horace did from his more simply tilled acres. We + trust that Horace did a little hoeing and farming himself, and that his + verse is not all fraudulent sentiment. In order to enjoy agriculture, you + do not want too much of it, and you want to be poor enough to have a + little inducement to work moderately yourself. Hoe while it is spring, and + enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn + out well. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIRST WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Under this modest title, I purpose to write a series of papers, some of + which will be like many papers of garden-seeds, with nothing vital in + them, on the subject of gardening; holding that no 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 experience. As my knowledge is constantly increasing, there + is likely to be no end to these papers. They will pursue no orderly system + of agriculture or horticulture, but range from topic to topic, according + to the weather and the progress of the weeds, which may drive me from one + corner of the garden to the other. + </p> + <p> + The principal value of a private garden is not understood. It is not to + give the possessor vegetables or fruit (that can be better and cheaper + done by the market-gardeners), but to teach him patience and philosophy + and the higher virtues, hope deferred and expectations blighted, leading + directly to resignation and sometimes to alienation. The garden thus + becomes a moral agent, a test of character, as it was in the beginning. I + shall keep this central truth in mind in these articles. I mean to have a + moral garden, if it is not a productive one,—one that shall teach, O + my brothers! O my sisters! the great lessons of life. + </p> + <p> + The first pleasant thing about a garden in this latitude is, that you + never know when to set it going. If you want anything to come to maturity + early, you must start it in a hot-house. If you put it out early, the + chances are all in favor of getting it nipped with frost; for the + thermometer will be 90 deg. one day, and go below 32 deg. the night of the + day following. And, if you do not set out plants or sow seeds early, you + fret continually; knowing that your vegetables will be late, and that, + while Jones has early peas, you will be watching your slow-forming pods. + This keeps you in a state of mind. When you have planted anything early, + you are doubtful whether to desire to see it above ground, or not. If a + hot day comes, you long to see the young plants; but, when a cold north + wind brings frost, you tremble lest the seeds have burst their bands. Your + spring is passed in anxious doubts and fears, which are usually realized; + and so a great moral discipline is worked out for you. + </p> + <p> + Now, there is my corn, two or three inches high this 18th of May, and + apparently having no fear of a frost. I was hoeing it this morning for the + first time,—it is not well usually to hoe corn until about the 18th + of May,—when Polly came out to look at the Lima beans. She seemed to + think the poles had come up beautifully. I thought they did look well: + they are a fine set of poles, large and well grown, and stand straight. + They were inexpensive, too. The cheapness came about from my cutting them + on another man's land, and he did not know it. I have not examined 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 themselves come up in any proper sense, but that the dirt had got + off from them, leaving them uncovered. She thought it would be well to + sprinkle a slight layer of dirt over them; and I, indulgently, consented. + It occurred to me, when she had gone, that beans always come up that way,—wrong + end first; and that what they wanted was light, and not dirt. + </p> + <p> + Observation.—Woman always did, from the first, make a muss in a + garden. + </p> + <p> + I inherited with my garden a large patch of raspberries. Splendid berry + the raspberry, when the strawberry has gone. This patch has grown into + such a defiant attitude, that you could not get within several feet of it. + Its stalks were enormous in size, and cast out long, prickly arms in all + directions; but the bushes were pretty much all dead. I have walked into + them a good deal with a pruning-knife; but it is very much like fighting + original sin. The variety is one that I can recommend. I think it is + called Brinckley's Orange. It is exceedingly prolific, and has enormous + stalks. The fruit is also said to be good; but that does not matter so + much, as the plant does not often bear in this region. The stalks seem to + be biennial institutions; and as they get about their growth one year, and + bear the next year, and then die, and the winters here nearly always kill + them, unless you take them into the house (which is inconvenient if you + have a family of small children), it is very difficult to induce the plant + to flower and fruit. This is the greatest objection there is to this sort + of raspberry. I think of keeping these for discipline, and setting out + some others, more hardy sorts, for fruit. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECOND WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Next to deciding when to start your garden, the most important matter is, + what to put in it. It is difficult to decide what to order for dinner on a + given day: how much more oppressive is it to order in a lump an endless + vista of dinners, so to speak! For, unless your garden is a boundless + prairie (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 vegetables, of those you + will raise in it; and you feel rather bound to supply your own table from + your own garden, and to eat only as you have sown. + </p> + <p> + I hold that no man has a right (whatever his sex, of course) to have a + garden to his own selfish uses. He ought not to please himself, but every + man to please his neighbor. I tried to have a garden that would give + general moral satisfaction. It seemed to me that nobody could object to + potatoes (a most useful vegetable); and I began to plant them freely. But + there was a chorus of protest against them. “You don't want to take up + your ground with potatoes,” the neighbors said; “you can buy potatoes” + (the very thing I wanted to avoid doing is buying things). “What you want + is the perishable things that you cannot get fresh in the market.”—“But + what kind of perishable things?” A horticulturist of eminence wanted me to + sow lines of straw-berries and raspberries right over where I had put my + potatoes in drills. I had about five hundred strawberry-plants in another + part of my garden; but this fruit-fanatic wanted me to turn my whole patch + into vines and runners. I suppose I could raise strawberries enough for + all my neighbors; and perhaps I ought to do it. I had a little space + prepared for melons,—muskmelons,—which I showed to an + experienced friend. + </p> + <p> + “You are not going to waste your ground on muskmelons?” he asked. “They + rarely ripen in this climate thoroughly, before frost.” He had tried for + years without luck. I resolved to not go into such a foolish experiment. + But, the next day, another neighbor happened in. “Ah! I see you are going + to have melons. My family would rather give up anything else in the garden + than musk-melons,—of the nutmeg variety. They are the most grateful + things we have on the table.” So there it was. There was no compromise: it + was melons, or no melons, and somebody offended in any case. I half + resolved to plant them a little late, so that they would, and they would + n't. But I had the same difficulty about string-beans (which I detest), + and squash (which I tolerate), and parsnips, and the whole round of green + things. + </p> + <p> + I have pretty much come to the conclusion that you have got to put your + foot down in gardening. If I had actually 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 is made up. + She knows just what she will raise; and she has an infinite variety of + early and late. The most humiliating thing to me about a garden is the + lesson it teaches of the inferiority of man. Nature is prompt, decided, + inexhaustible. She thrusts up her plants with a vigor and freedom that I + admire; and the more worthless the plant, the more rapid and splendid its + growth. She is at it early and late, and all night; never tiring, nor + showing the least sign of exhaustion. + </p> + <p> + “Eternal gardening is the price of liberty,” is a motto that I should put + over the gateway of my garden, if I had a gate. And yet it is not wholly + true; for there is no liberty in gardening. The man who undertakes a + garden is relentlessly pursued. He felicitates himself that, when he gets + it once planted, he will have a season of rest and of enjoyment in the + sprouting and growing of his seeds. It is a green anticipation. He has + planted a seed that will keep him awake nights; drive rest from his bones, + and sleep from his pillow. Hardly is the garden planted, when he must + begin to hoe it. The weeds have sprung up all over it in a night. They + shine and wave in redundant life. The docks have almost gone to seed; and + their roots go deeper than conscience. Talk about the London Docks!—the + roots of these are like the sources of the Aryan race. And the weeds are + not all. I awake in the 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't be caught. Somebody ought to get up before the + dew is off (why don't the dew stay on till after a reasonable breakfast?) + and sprinkle soot on the leaves. I wonder if it is I. Soot is so much + 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 you + get ahead of the bugs. I think, that, on the whole, it would be best to + sit up all night, and sleep daytimes. Things appear to go on in the night + in the garden uncommonly. It would be less trouble to stay up than it is + to get up so early. + </p> + <p> + I have been setting out some new raspberries, two sorts,—a silver + and a gold color. How fine they will look on the table next year in a + cut-glass dish, the cream being in a ditto pitcher! I set them four and + five feet apart. I set my strawberries pretty well apart also. The reason + is, to give room for the cows to run through when they break into the + garden,—as they do sometimes. A cow needs a broader track than a + locomotive; and she generally makes one. I am sometimes astonished, to see + how big a space in, a flower-bed her foot will cover. The raspberries are + called Doolittle and Golden Cap. I don't like the name of the first + variety, and, if they do much, shall change it to Silver Top. You never + can tell what a thing named Doolittle will do. The one in the Senate + changed color, and got sour. They ripen badly,—either mildew, or rot + on the bush. They are apt to Johnsonize,—rot on the stem. I shall + watch the Doolittles. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THIRD WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I believe that I have found, if not original sin, at least vegetable total + depravity in my garden; and it was there before I went into it. It is the + bunch, or joint, or snakegrass,—whatever it is called. As I do not + know the names of all the weeds and plants, I have to do as Adam did in + his garden,—name things as I find them. This grass has a slender, + beautiful stalk: and when you cut it down, or pull up a long root of it, + you fancy it is got rid of; but in a day or two it will come up in the + same spot in half a dozen vigorous blades. Cutting down and pulling up is + what it thrives on. Extermination rather helps it. If you follow a slender + white root, it will be found to run under the ground until it meets + another slender white root; and you will soon unearth a network of them, + with a knot somewhere, sending out dozens of sharp-pointed, healthy + shoots, every joint prepared to be an independent life and plant. The only + way to deal with it is to take one part hoe and two parts fingers, and + carefully dig it out, not 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 it out, and keep it out, you will have no further trouble. + </p> + <p> + I have said it was total depravity. Here it is. If you attempt to pull up + and root out any sin in you, which shows on the surface,—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 branch of them + roots somewhere; and that you cannot pull out one without making a general + internal disturbance, and rooting up your whole being. I suppose it is + less trouble to quietly cut them off at the top—say once a week, on + Sunday, when you put on your religious clothes and face so that no one + will see them, and not try to eradicate the network within. + </p> + <p> + Remark.—This moral vegetable figure is at the service of any + clergyman who will have the manliness to come forward and help me at a + day's hoeing on my potatoes. None but the orthodox need apply. + </p> + <p> + I, however, believe in the intellectual, if not the moral, qualities of + vegetables, and especially weeds. There was a worthless vine that (or who) + started up about midway between a grape-trellis and a row of bean-poles, + some three feet from each, but a little nearer the trellis. When it came + out of the ground, it looked around to see what it should do. The trellis + was already occupied. The bean-pole was empty. There was evidently a + little the best chance of light, air, and sole proprietorship on the pole. + And the vine started for the pole, and began to climb it with + determination. Here was as distinct an act 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 did the vine know enough to travel + in exactly the right direction, three feet, to find what it wanted? This + is intellect. The weeds, on the other hand, have hateful moral qualities. + To cut down a weed is, therefore, to do a moral action. I feel as if I + were destroying sin. My hoe becomes an instrument of retributive justice. + I am an apostle of Nature. This view of the matter lends a dignity to the + art of hoeing which nothing else does, and lifts it into the region of + ethics. Hoeing becomes, not a pastime, but a duty. And you get to regard + it so, as the days and the weeds lengthen. + </p> + <p> + Observation.—Nevertheless, what a 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. + </p> + <p> + The striped bug has come, the saddest of the year. He is a moral + double-ender, iron-clad at that. He is unpleasant in two ways. He burrows + in the ground so that you cannot find him, and he flies away so that you + cannot catch him. He is rather handsome, as bugs go, but utterly + dastardly, in that he gnaws the stem of the plant close to the ground, and + ruins it without any apparent advantage to himself. I find him on the + hills of cucumbers (perhaps it will be a cholera-year, and we shall not + want any), the squashes (small loss), and the melons (which never ripen). + The best way to deal with the striped bug is to sit down by the hills, and + patiently watch for him. If you are spry, you can annoy him. This, + however, takes time. It takes all day and part of the night. For he flieth + in darkness, and wasteth at noonday. If you get up before the dew is off + the plants,—it goes off very early,—you can sprinkle soot on + the plant (soot is my panacea: if I can get the disease of a plant reduced + to the necessity of soot, I am all right) and soot is unpleasant to the + bug. But the best thing to do is to set a toad to catch the bugs. The toad + at once establishes the most intimate relations with the bug. It is a + pleasure to see such unity among the lower animals. The difficulty is to + make the toad stay and watch the hill. +</p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0010}.jpg" alt="{0010}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0010}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + +<p> +If you know your toad, it is all + right. If you do not, you must build a tight fence round the plants, which + the toad cannot jump over. This, however, introduces a new element. I find + that I have a zoological garden on my hands. It is an unexpected result of + my little enterprise, which never aspired to the completeness of the Paris + “Jardin des Plantes.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOURTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Orthodoxy is at a low ebb. Only two clergymen accepted my offer to come + and help hoe my potatoes for the privilege of using my vegetable + total-depravity figure about the snake-grass, or quack-grass as some call + it; and those two did not bring hoes. There seems to be a lack of + disposition to hoe among our educated clergy. I am bound to say that these + two, however, sat and watched my vigorous combats with the weeds, and + talked most beautifully about the application of the snake-grass figure. + As, for instance, when a fault or sin showed on the surface of a man, + whether, if you dug down, you would find that it ran back and into the + original organic bunch of original sin within the man. The only other + clergyman who came was from out of town,—a half Universalist, who + said he wouldn't give twenty cents for my figure. He said that the + snake-grass was not in my garden originally, that it sneaked in under the + sod, and that it could be entirely rooted out with industry and patience. + I asked the Universalist-inclined man to take my hoe and try it; but he + said he had n't time, and went away. + </p> + <p> + But, jubilate, I have got my garden all hoed the first time! I feel as if + I had put down the rebellion. Only there are guerrillas left here and + there, about the borders and in corners, unsubdued,—Forrest docks, + and Quantrell grass, and Beauregard pig-weeds. This first hoeing is a + gigantic task: it is your first trial of strength with the never-sleeping + forces of Nature. Several times, in its progress, I was tempted to do as + Adam did, who abandoned his 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 rejoicing over + the finishing of the first hoeing is, that the garden now wants hoeing the + second time. I suppose, if my 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 is the old fable of perpetual labor; and I, + for one, can never forgive Adam Sisyphus, or whoever it was, who let in + the roots of discord. I had pictured myself sitting at eve, with my + family, in the shade of twilight, contemplating a garden hoed. Alas! it is + a dream not to be realized in this world. + </p> + <p> + My mind has been turned to the subject of fruit and shade trees in a + garden. There are those who say that trees shade the garden too much, and + interfere with the growth of the vegetables. 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 my face, I should be + grateful for shade. What is a garden for? The pleasure of man. I should + take much more pleasure in a shady garden. Am I to be sacrificed, broiled, + roasted, for the sake of the increased vigor of a few vegetables? The + thing is perfectly absurd. If I were rich, I think I would have my garden + covered with an awning, so that it would be comfortable to work in it. It + might roll up and be removable, as the great awning of the Roman Coliseum + was,—not like the Boston one, which went off in a high wind. Another + very good way to do, and probably not so expensive as the awning, would be + to have four persons of foreign birth carry a sort of canopy over you as + you hoed. And there might be a person at each end of the row with some + cool and refreshing drink. Agriculture is still in a very barbarous stage. + I hope to live yet to see the day when I can do my gardening, as tragedy + is 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 currant-bush, and shakes out a full-throated summer song, + I almost expect to find the cooling drink and the hospitable entertainment + at the end of the row. But I never do. There is nothing to be done but to + turn round, and hoe back to the other end. + </p> + <p> + Speaking of 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 I am in doubt if I shall ever see the plants again. But I + have heard of another defense against the bugs. Put a fine wire-screen + over each hill, which will keep out the bugs and admit the rain. I should + say that these screens would not cost 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. That is worth paying for. + </p> + <p> + I left my own garden yesterday, and went over to where Polly was getting + the weeds out of one of her flower-beds. She was working away at the bed + with a little hoe. Whether women 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 it would injure my agricultural influence), 'I am + compelled to say that this was rather helpless hoeing. It was patient, + conscientious, even pathetic hoeing; but it was neither effective nor + finished. When completed, the bed looked somewhat as if a hen had + scratched it: there was that touching unevenness about it. I think no one + could look at it and not be affected. To be sure, Polly smoothed it off + with a rake, and asked me if it was n't nice; and I said it was. It was + not a favorable time for me to explain the difference between puttering + hoeing, and the broad, free sweep of the instrument, which kills the + weeds, spares the plants, and loosens the soil without leaving it in holes + and hills. But, after all, as life is constituted, I think more of Polly's + honest and anxious care of her plants than of the most finished gardening + in the world. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIFTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I left my garden for a week, just at the close of the dry spell. A season + of rain immediately set in, and when I returned the transformation was + wonderful. In one week every vegetable had fairly jumped forward. The + tomatoes which I left 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 like + that which grows so rank out of the French-English mixture at Waterloo. + The squashes—I will not speak of the squashes. The most remarkable + growth was the asparagus. There was not a spear above ground when I went + away; and now it had sprung up, and gone to seed, and there were stalks + higher than my head. I am entirely aware of the value of words, and of + moral obligations. When I say that the asparagus had grown six feet in + seven days, I expect and wish to be believed. I am a little particular + about the statement; for, if there is any prize offered for asparagus at + the next agricultural fair, I wish to compete,—speed to govern. What + I claim is the fastest asparagus. As for eating purposes, I have seen + better. A neighbor of mine, who looked in at the growth of the bed, said, + “Well, he'd be ——-”: but I told him there was no use of + affirming now; he might keep his oath till I wanted it on the asparagus + affidavit. In order to have this sort of asparagus, you want to manure + heavily in the early spring, fork it in, and top-dress (that sounds + technical) with a thick layer of chloride of sodium: if you cannot get + that, common salt will do, and the neighbors will never notice whether it + is the orthodox Na. Cl. 58-5, or not. + </p> + <p> + I scarcely dare trust myself to speak of the weeds. They grow as if the + devil was in them. I know a lady, a member of the church, and a very good + sort of woman, considering the subject condition of that class, who says + that the weeds work on her to that extent, that, in going through her + garden, she has the greatest difficulty in keeping the ten commandments in + anything like an unfractured condition. I asked her which one, but she + said, all of them: one felt like breaking the whole lot. The sort of weed + which I most hate (if I can be said to hate anything which grows in my own + garden) is the “pusley,” a fat, ground-clinging, spreading, greasy thing, + and the most propagatious (it is not my fault if the word is not in the + dictionary) plant I know. I saw a Chinaman, who came over with a returned + missionary, and pretended to be converted, boil a lot of it in a pot, stir + in eggs, and mix and eat it with relish,—“Me likee he.” It will be a + good thing to keep the Chinamen on when they come to do our gardening. I + only fear they will cultivate it at the expense of the strawberries and + melons. Who can say that other weeds, which we despise, may not be the + favorite food of some remote people or tribe? We ought to abate our + conceit. It is possible that we destroy in our gardens that which is + really of most value in some other place. Perhaps, in like manner, our + faults and vices are virtues in some remote planet. I cannot see, however, + that this thought is of the slightest value to us here, any more than + weeds are. + </p> + <p> + There is another subject which is forced upon my notice. I like neighbors, + and I like chickens; but I do not think they ought to be united near a + garden. Neighbors' hens in your garden are an annoyance. Even if they did + not scratch up the corn, and peck the strawberries, and eat the tomatoes, + it is not pleasant to see them straddling about in their jerky, + high-stepping, speculative manner, picking inquisitively here and there. + It is of no use to tell the neighbor that his hens eat your tomatoes: it + makes no impression on him, for the tomatoes are not his. The best way is + to casually remark to him that he has a fine lot of chickens, pretty well + grown, and that you like spring chickens broiled. He will take them away + at once. + </p> + <p> + The neighbors' small children are also out of place in your 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 + gardens in the world. Without them the common school would languish. But + the problem is, what to do with them in a garden. For they are not good to + eat, and there is a law against making away with them. The law is not very + well enforced, it is true; for people do thin them out with constant + dosing, paregoric, and soothing-syrups, and scanty clothing. But I, for + one, feel that it would not be right, aside from the law, to take the + life, even of the smallest child, for the sake of a little fruit, more or + less, in the garden. I may be wrong; but these are my sentiments, and I am + not ashamed of them. When we come, as Bryant says in his “Iliad,” to leave + the circus of this life, and join that innumerable caravan which moves, it + will be some satisfaction to us, that we have never, in the way of + gardening, disposed of even the humblest child unnecessarily. My 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SIXTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Somebody has sent me a new sort of hoe, with the wish that I should speak + favorably of it, if I can consistently. I willingly do so, but with the + understanding that I am to be at liberty to speak just as courteously of + any other hoe which I may receive. If I understand religious morals, this + is the position of the religious press with regard to bitters and + wringing-machines. In some cases, the responsibility of such a + recommendation is shifted upon the wife of the editor or clergy-man. Polly + says she is entirely willing to make a certificate, accompanied with an + affidavit, with regard to this hoe; but her habit of sitting about the + garden walk, on an inverted flower-pot, while I hoe, some what destroys + the practical value of her testimony. + </p> + <p> + As to this hoe, I do not mind saying that it has changed my view of the + desirableness and value of human life. It has, in fact, made life a + holiday to me. It is made on the principle that man is an upright, + sensible, reasonable being, and not a groveling wretch. It does away with + the necessity of the hinge in the back. The handle is seven and a half + feet long. There are two narrow blades, sharp on both edges, which come + together at an obtuse angle in front; and as you walk along with this hoe + before you, pushing and pulling with a gentle motion, the weeds fall at + every thrust and withdrawal, and the slaughter is immediate and + widespread. When I got this hoe I was troubled with sleepless mornings, + pains in the back, kleptomania with regard to new weeders; when I went + into my garden I was always sure to see something. In this disordered + state of mind and body I got this hoe. The morning after a day of using it + I slept perfectly and late. I regained my respect for the eighth + commandment. After two doses of the hoe in the garden, 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 + grow in the garden. Of course, this is figurative language. What I mean + is, that the fascination of using this hoe is such that you are sorely + tempted to employ it upon your vegetables, after the weeds are laid low, + and must hastily withdraw it, to avoid unpleasant results. I make this + explanation, because I intend to put nothing into these agricultural + papers that will not bear the strictest scientific investigation; nothing + that the youngest child cannot understand and cry for; nothing that the + oldest and wisest men will not need to study with care. + </p> + <p> + I need not add that the care of a garden with this hoe becomes the merest + pastime. I would not be without one for a single night. The only danger + is, that you may rather make an idol of the hoe, and somewhat neglect your + garden in explaining it, and fooling about with it. I almost think that, + with one of these in the hands of an ordinary day-laborer, you might see + at night where he had been working. + </p> + <p> + Let us have peas. I have been a zealous advocate of the birds. I have + rejoiced in their multiplication. I have endured their concerts at four + o'clock in the morning without a murmur. Let them come, I said, and eat + the worms, in order that we, later, may enjoy the foliage and the fruits + of the earth. We have a cat, a magnificent animal, of the sex which votes + (but not a pole-cat),—so large and powerful that, if he were in the + army, he would be called Long Tom. He is a cat of fine disposition, the + most irreproachable morals I ever saw thrown away in a cat, and a splendid + hunter. He spends his nights, not in social dissipation, but in gathering + in rats, mice, flying-squirrels, and also birds. When he first brought me + a bird, I told him that it was wrong, and tried to convince him, while he + was eating it, that he was doing wrong; for he is a reasonable cat, and + understands pretty much everything except the binomial theorem and the + time down the cycloidal arc. But with no effect. The killing of birds went + on, to my great regret and shame. + </p> + <p> + The other day I went to my garden to get a mess of peas. I had seen, the + day before, that they were just ready to pick. How I had lined the ground, + planted, hoed, bushed them! The bushes were very fine,—seven feet + high, and of good wood. How I had delighted in the growing, the blowing, + the podding! What a touching thought it was that they had all podded for + me! When I went to pick them, I found the pods all split open, and the + peas gone. The dear little birds, who are so fond of the strawberries, had + eaten them all. Perhaps there were left as many as I planted: I did not + count them. I made a rapid estimate of the cost of the seed, the interest + of the ground, the price of labor, the value of the bushes, the anxiety of + weeks of watchfulness. I looked about me on the face of Nature. The wind + blew from the south so soft and treacherous! A thrush sang in the woods so + deceitfully! All Nature seemed fair. But who was to give me back my peas? + The fowls of the air have peas; but what has man? + </p> + <p> + I went into the house. I called Calvin. (That is the name of our cat, + given him on account of his gravity, morality, and uprightness. We never + familiarly call him John). I petted Calvin. I lavished upon him an + enthusiastic fondness. I told him that he had no fault; that the one + action that I had called a vice was an heroic exhibition of regard for my + interests. I bade him go and do likewise continually. I now saw how much + better instinct is than mere unguided reason. Calvin knew. If he had put + his opinion into English (instead of his native catalogue), it would have + been: “You need not teach your grandmother to suck eggs.” It was only the + round of Nature. The worms eat a noxious something in the ground. The + birds eat the worms. Calvin eats the birds. We eat—no, we do not eat + Calvin. There the chain stops. When you ascend the scale of being, and + come to an animal that is, like ourselves, inedible, you have arrived at a + result where you can rest. Let us respect the cat. He completes an edible + chain. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0073}.jpg" alt="{0073}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0073}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + I have little heart to discuss methods of raising peas. It occurs to me + that I can have an iron peabush, a sort of trellis, through which I could + discharge electricity at frequent intervals, and electrify the birds to + death when they alight: for they stand upon my beautiful brush in order to + pick out the peas. An apparatus of this kind, with an operator, would + cost, however, about as much as the peas. A neighbor suggests that I might + put up a scarecrow near the vines, which would keep the birds away. I am + doubtful about it: the birds are too much accustomed to seeing a person in + poor clothes in the garden to care much for that. Another neighbor + suggests that the birds do not open the pods; that a sort of blast, apt to + come after rain, splits the pods, and the birds then eat the peas. It may + be so. There seems to be complete unity of action between the blast and + the birds. But, good neighbors, kind friends, I desire that you will not + increase, by talk, a disappointment which you cannot assuage. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SEVENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + A garden is an awful responsibility. You never know what you 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 grew to be an archangel; that is, that he + would not change thereafter at all, but only develop. I do not know + whether this is good theology, or not; and I hesitate to support it by an + illustration from my garden, especially as I do not want to run the risk + of propagating error, and I do not care to give away these theological + comparisons to clergymen who make me so little return in the way of labor. + But I find, in dissecting a pea-blossom, that hidden in the center of it + is a perfect miniature pea-pod, with the peas all in it,—as perfect + 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 confirmation of + the theologic theory is startling, and sets me meditating upon the moral + possibilities of my garden. I may find in it yet the cosmic egg. + </p> + <p> + And, speaking of moral things, I am half determined to petition the + Ecumenical Council to issue a bull of excommunication against “pusley.” Of + all the forms which “error” has taken in this world, I think that is about + the worst. In the Middle Ages the monks in St. Bernard's ascetic community + at Clairvaux excommunicated a vineyard which a less rigid monk had planted + near, so that it bore nothing. In 1120 a bishop of Laon excommunicated the + caterpillars in his diocese; and, the following year, St. Bernard + excommunicated the flies in the Monastery of Foigny; and in 1510 the + ecclesiastical court pronounced 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 heresy + when the ground is wet. + </p> + <p> + It is the time of festivals. Polly says we ought to have one,—a + strawberry-festival. She says they are perfectly delightful: it is so nice + to get people together!—this hot weather. They create such a good + feeling! I myself am very fond of festivals. I always go,—when I can + consistently. Besides the strawberries, there are ice creams and cake and + lemonade, and that sort of thing: and one always feels so well the next + day after such a diet! But as social reunions, if there are good things to + eat, nothing can be pleasanter; and they are very profitable, if you have + a good object. I agreed that we ought to have a festival; but I did not + know what object to devote it to. We are not in need of an organ, nor of + any pulpit-cushions. I do not know that they use pulpit-cushions now as + much as they used to, when preachers had to have something soft to pound, + so that they would not hurt their fists. I suggested pocket handkerchiefs, + and flannels for next winter. But Polly says that will not do at all. You + must have some charitable object,—something that appeals to a vast + sense of something; something that it will be right to get up lotteries + and that sort of thing for. I suggest a festival for the benefit of my + garden; and this seems feasible. In order to make everything pass off + pleasantly, invited guests will bring or send their own strawberries and + cream, which I shall be happy to sell to them at a slight advance. There + are a great many improvements which the garden needs; 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 + selection from the ten commandments, in big letters, posted up + conspicuously, and a few traps, that will detain, but not maim, for the + benefit of those who cannot read. But what is most important is, that the + ladies should crochet nets to cover over the strawberries. A good-sized, + well-managed festival ought to produce nets enough to cover my entire + beds; and I can think of no other method of preserving the berries from + the birds next year. I wonder how many strawberries it would need for a + festival and whether they would cost more than the nets. + </p> + <p> + I am more and more impressed, as the summer goes on, with the inequality + of man's fight with Nature; especially in a civilized state. In savagery, + it does not much matter; for one does not take a 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 larger + than he needs to sleep in for a night, and to try to have his own way in + the least, Nature is at once up, and vigilant, and contests him at every + step with all her ingenuity and unwearied vigor. This talk of subduing + Nature is pretty much nonsense. I do not intend to surrender in the midst + of the summer campaign, yet I cannot but think how 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 freshness + and vigor, as if they had just thought of it for the first time, and had + not been cut down and dragged out every other day since the snow went + off.) + </p> + <p> + We have got down the forests, and exterminated savage beasts; but Nature + is no more subdued than before: she only changes her tactics,—uses + smaller guns, so to speak. She reenforces herself with a variety of bugs, + worms, and vermin, and weeds, unknown to the savage state, in order to + make war upon the things of our planting; and calls in the fowls of the + air, just as we think the battle is won, to snatch away the booty. When + one gets almost weary of the struggle, she is as fresh as at the + beginning,—just, in fact, ready for the fray. I, for my part, begin + to appreciate the value of frost and snow; for they give the husbandman a + little peace, and enable him, for a season, to contemplate his incessant + foe subdued. I do not wonder that the tropical people, where Nature never + goes to sleep, give it up, and sit in lazy acquiescence. + </p> + <p> + Here I have been working all the season to make a piece of lawn. It had to + be graded and sowed and rolled; and I have been shaving it like a barber. + When it was soft, everything had a tendency to go on to it,—cows, + and especially wandering hackmen. Hackmen (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 to + complete the work of the hackmen. In a half-hour he had rooted up the + ground like a pig. I 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,—a smooth, beautiful animal, with fur like silk, + if you could only catch him. He appears to enjoy the lawn as much as the + hackmen did. He does not care how smooth it is. He is constantly mining, + and ridging it up. I am not sure but he could be countermined. I have half + a mind to put powder in here and there, and blow the whole thing into the + air. Some folks set traps for the mole; but my 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 me, is devil-grass: the first time I have heard that the Devil has + a botanical name), which would worry them, if it is as difficult for them + to get through it as it is for me. + </p> + <p> + 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 humble gardener. I + desire to write nothing against him which I should wish to recall at the + last,—nothing foreign to the spirit of that beautiful saying of the + dying boy, “He had no copy-book, which, dying, he was sorry he had + blotted.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EIGHTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + My garden has been visited by a High Official Person. President Gr-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 if he wouldn't like to come down our way Sunday afternoon + and take a plain, simple look at my garden, eat a little lemon ice-cream + and jelly-cake, and drink a glass of native lager-beer. I thought of + putting up over my gate, “Welcome to the Nation's Gardener;” but I hate + nonsense, and did n't do it. I, however, hoed diligently on Saturday: what + weeds I could n't remove I buried, so that everything would look all + right. The borders of my drive were trimmed with scissors; and everything + that could offend the Eye of the Great was hustled out of the way. + </p> + <p> + In relating this interview, it must be distinctly understood that I am not + responsible for anything that the President said; nor is he, either. He is + not a great speaker; but whatever he says has an esoteric and an exoteric + meaning; and some of his remarks about my vegetables went very deep. I + said nothing to him whatever about politics, at which he seemed a good + deal surprised: he said it was the first garden he had ever been in, with + a man, when the talk was not of appointments. I told him that this was + purely vegetable; after which he seemed more at his ease, and, in fact, + delighted with everything he saw. He was much interested in my + strawberry-beds, asked what varieties I had, and requested me to send him + some seed. He said the patent-office seed was as difficult to raise as an + appropriation for the St. Domingo business. The playful bean seemed also + to please him; and he said he had never seen such impressive corn and + potatoes at this time of year; that it was to him an unexpected pleasure, + and one of the choicest memories that he should take away with him of his + visit to New England. + </p> + <p> + N. B.—That corn and those potatoes which General Gr-nt looked at I + will sell for seed, at five dollars an ear, and one dollar a potato. + Office-seekers need not apply. + </p> + <p> + Knowing the President's great desire for peas, I kept him from that part + of the garden where the vines grow. But they could not be concealed. Those + who say that the President is not a man easily moved are knaves or fools. + When he saw my pea-pods, ravaged by the birds, he burst into tears. A man + of war, he knows the value of peas. I told him they were an excellent + sort, “The Champion of England.” As quick as a flash he said, “Why don't + you call them 'The Reverdy Johnson'?” + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0089}.jpg" alt="{0089}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0089}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + It was a very clever bon-mot; but I changed the subject. + </p> + <p> + The sight of my squashes, with stalks as big as speaking-trumpets, + restored the President to his usual spirits. He said the summer squash was + the most ludicrous vegetable he knew. It was nearly all leaf and blow, + with only a sickly, crook-necked fruit after a mighty fuss. It reminded + him of the member of Congress from...; but I hastened to change the + subject. + </p> + <p> + As we walked along, the keen eye of the President rested upon some + handsome sprays of “pusley,” which must have grown up since Saturday + night. It was most fortunate; for it led his Excellency to speak of the + Chinese problem. He said he had been struck with one, coupling of the + Chinese and the “pusley” in one of my agricultural papers; and it had a + significance more far-reaching than I had probably supposed. He had made + the Chinese problem a special study. He said that I was right in saying + that “pusley” was the natural food of the Chinaman, and that where the + “pusley” was, there would the Chinaman be also. For his part, he welcomed + the Chinese emigration: we needed the Chinaman in our gardens to eat the + “pusley;” and he thought the whole problem solved by this simple + consideration. To get rid of rats and “pusley,” he said, was a necessity + of our civilization. He did not care so much about the shoe-business; he + did not think that the little Chinese shoes that he had seen would be of + service in the army: but the garden-interest was quite another affair. We + want to make a garden of our whole country: the hoe, in the hands of a man + truly great, he was pleased to say, was mightier than the pen. He presumed + that General 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 B-tl-r + had to leave, I thought he was going to say, but I changed the subject. + </p> + <p> + 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 “uses tobacco in any form;” for I have seen him + several times, and he was not smoking. Indeed, I offered him a Connecticut + six; but he wittily said that he did not like a weed in a garden,—a + remark which I took to have a personal political bearing, and changed the + subject. + </p> + <p> + The President was a good deal surprised at the method and fine appearance + of my garden, and to learn that I had the sole care of it. He asked me if + I pursued an original course, or whether I got my ideas from writers on + the subject. I told him that I had had no time to read anything on the + subject since I began to hoe, except “Lothair,” from which I got my ideas + of landscape gardening; and that I had worked the garden entirely + according to my own notions, except that I had borne in mind his + injunction, “to fight it out on this line if”—The President stopped + me abruptly, and said it was unnecessary to repeat that remark: he thought + he had heard it before. Indeed, he deeply regretted that he had ever made + it. Sometimes, he said, after hearing it in speeches, and coming across it + in resolutions, and reading it in newspapers, and having it dropped + jocularly by facetious politicians, who were boring him for an office, + about twenty-five times a day, say for a month, it would get to running + through his head, like the “shoo-fly” song which B-tl-r sings in the + House, until it did seem as if he should go distracted. He said, no man + could stand that kind of sentence hammering on his brain for years. + </p> + <p> + The President was so much pleased with my management of the garden, that + he offered me (at least, I so understood him) the position of head + gardener at the White House, to have care of the exotics. I told him that + I thanked him, but that I did not desire any foreign appointment. I had + resolved, when the administration came in, not to take an appointment; and + I had kept my resolution. As to any home office, I was poor, but honest; + and, of course, it would be useless for me to take one. The President + mused a moment, and then smiled, and said he would see what could be done + for me. I did not change the subject; but nothing further was said by + General Gr-nt. + </p> + <p> + The President is a great talker (contrary to the general impression); but + I think he appreciated his quiet hour in my garden. He said it carried him + back to his youth farther than anything he had seen lately. He looked + forward with delight to the time when he could again have his private + garden, grow his own lettuce and tomatoes, and not have to get so much + “sarce” from Congress. + </p> + <p> + The chair in which the President sat, while declining to take a glass of + lager I have had destroyed, in order that no one may sit in it. It was the + only way to save it, if I may so speak. It would have been impossible to + keep it from use by any precautions. There are people who would have sat + in it, if the seat had been set with iron spikes. Such is the adoration of + Station. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NINTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I 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 of comparative vegetable + morality. We live in an age of protoplasm. 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 is disreputable, or has not some + quality that can contribute to 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 I do not like with the hoe, and, probably, commit no more sin in so + doing than the Christians did in hewing down the Jews in the Middle Ages. + </p> + <p> + 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, + confiding, engaging vine; but you never can put beans into poetry, nor + into the highest sort of prose. There is no dignity in the bean. Corn, + which, in my garden, grows alongside the bean, and, so far as I can see, + with no affectation of superiority, is, however, the child of song. It + waves in all literature. But mix it with beans, and its high tone is gone. + Succotash is vulgar. It is the bean in it. The bean is a vulgar vegetable, + without culture, or any flavor of high society among vegetables. Then + there is the cool cucumber, like so many people, good for nothing when it + is ripe and the wildness has gone out of it. How inferior in quality it is + to the melon, which grows upon a similar vine, is of a like watery + consistency, but is not half so valuable! The cucumber is 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 as opposite as + the dining-room of the duchess and the cabin of the peasant. I admire the + potato, both in vine and blossom; but it is not aristocratic. I began + digging my potatoes, by the way, about the 4th of July; and I fancy I have + discovered the right way to do it. I treat the potato just as I would a + cow. I do not pull them up, and shake them out, and destroy them; but I + dig carefully at the side of the hill, remove the fruit which is grown, + leaving the vine undisturbed: and my theory is, that it will go on + bearing, and submitting to my exactions, until the frost cuts it down. It + is a game that one would not undertake with a vegetable of tone. + </p> + <p> + The lettuce is to me a most interesting study. Lettuce is like + conversation: it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely + notice the bitter in it. Lettuce, like most talkers, is, however, apt to + run rapidly to seed. Blessed is that sort which comes to a head, and so + remains, like a few people I know; growing more solid and satisfactory and + tender at the same time, and whiter at the center, and crisp in their + maturity. Lettuce, like conversation, requires a good deal of oil to avoid + friction, and keep the company smooth; a pinch of attic salt; a dash of + pepper; a quantity of mustard and vinegar, by all means, but so mixed that + you will notice no sharp contrasts; and a trifle of sugar. You can put + anything, and the more things the better, into salad, as into a + conversation; but everything depends upon the skill of mixing. I feel that + I am in the best society when I am with lettuce. It is in the select + circle of vegetables. The tomato appears well on the table; but you do not + want to ask its origin. It is a most agreeable parvenu. Of course, I have + said nothing about the berries. They live in another and more ideal + region; except, perhaps, the currant. Here we see, that, even among + berries, there are degrees of breeding. The currant is well enough, clear + as truth, and exquisite in color; but I ask you to notice how far it is + from the exclusive hauteur of the aristocratic strawberry, and the native + refinement of the quietly elegant raspberry. + </p> + <p> + I do not know that chemistry, searching for protoplasm, is able to + discover the tendency of vegetables. It can only be found out by outward + observation. I confess that I am suspicious of the bean, for instance. + There are signs in it of an unregulated life. I put up the most attractive + sort of poles for my Limas. They stand high and straight, like + church-spires, in my theological garden,—lifted up; and some of them + have even budded, like Aaron's rod. No church-steeple in a New England + village was ever better fitted to draw to it the rising generation on + Sunday, than those poles to lift up my beans towards heaven. Some of them + did run up the sticks seven feet, and then straggled off into the air in a + wanton manner; but more than half of them went gallivanting off to the + neighboring grape-trellis, and wound their tendrils with the tendrils of + the grape, with a disregard of the proprieties of life which is a satire + upon human nature. And the grape is morally no better. I think the + ancients, who were not troubled with the recondite mystery of protoplasm, + were right in the mythic union of Bacchus and Venus. + </p> + <p> + Talk about the Darwinian theory of development, and the principle of + natural selection! 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 maturity, and the weaker go to + the wall, I can clearly see that I should have had a pretty mess of it. It + would have been a scene of passion and license and brutality. The “pusley” + would have strangled the strawberry; the upright corn, which has now ears + to hear the guilty beating of the hearts of the children who steal the + raspberries, would have been dragged to the earth by the wandering bean; + 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 my own “natural selection.” Nothing 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 awhile away, I should put up a notice, “Children, beware! There is + Protoplasm here.” But I suppose it would have no effect. I believe they + would eat protoplasm as quick as anything else, ripe or green. I wonder if + this is going to be a cholera-year. Considerable cholera is the only thing + that would let my apples and pears ripen. Of course I do not care for the + fruit; but I do not want to take the responsibility of letting so much + “life-matter,” full of crude and even wicked vegetable-human tendencies, + pass into the composition of the neighbors' children, some of whom may be + as immortal as snake-grass. There ought to be a public meeting about this, + and resolutions, and perhaps a clambake. At least, it ought to be put into + the catechism, and put in strong. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TENTH WEEK + </h2><div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0105}.jpg" alt="{0105}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0105}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + <p> + I think I have discovered the way to keep peas from the birds. I tried the + scare-crow plan, in a way which I thought would outwit the shrewdest bird. + The brain of the bird is not large; but it is all concentrated on one + object, and that is the attempt to elude the devices of modern + civilization which injure his chances of food. I knew that, if I put up a + complete stuffed man, the bird would detect the imitation at once: the + perfection of the thing would show him that it was a trick. People always + overdo the matter when they attempt deception. I therefore hung some loose + garments, of a bright color, upon a rake-head, and set them up among the + vines. The supposition was, that the bird would think there was an effort + to trap him, that there was a man behind, holding up these garments, and + would sing, as he kept at a distance, “You can't catch me with any such + double device.” The bird would know, or think he knew, that I would not + hang up such a scare, in the expectation that it would pass for a man, and + deceive a bird; and he would therefore look for a deeper plot. I expected + to outwit the bird by a duplicity that was simplicity itself I may have + over-calculated the sagacity and reasoning power of the bird. At any rate, + I did over-calculate the amount of peas I should gather. + </p> + <p> + But my game was only half played. In another part of the garden were other + peas, growing and blowing. To-these I took good care not to attract the + attention of the bird by any scarecrow whatever! I left the old scarecrow + conspicuously flaunting above the old vines; and by this means I hope to + keep the attention of the birds confined to that side of the garden. I am + convinced that this is the true use of a scarecrow: it is a lure, and not + a warning. If you wish to save men from any particular vice, set up a + tremendous cry of warning about some other; and they will all give their + special efforts to the one to which attention is called. This profound + truth is about the only thing I have yet realized out of my pea-vines. + </p> + <p> + However, the garden does begin to yield. I know of nothing that makes one + feel more complacent, in these July days, than to have his vegetables from + his own garden. What an effect it has on the market-man and the butcher! + It is a kind of declaration of independence. The market-man shows me his + peas and beets and tomatoes, and supposes he shall send me out some with + the meat. “No, I thank you,” I say carelessly; “I am raising my own this + year.” Whereas I have been wont to remark, “Your vegetables look a little + wilted this weather,” I now say, “What a fine lot of vegetables you've + got!” When a man is not going to buy, he can afford to be generous. To + raise his own vegetables makes a person feel, somehow, more liberal. I + think the butcher is touched by the influence, and cuts off a better roast + for me, The butcher is my friend when he sees that I am not wholly + dependent on him. + </p> + <p> + It is at home, however, that the effect is most marked, though sometimes + in a way that I had not expected. I have never read of any Roman supper + that seemed to me equal to a dinner of my own vegetables; when everything + on the table is the product of my own labor, except the clams, which I + have not been able to raise yet, and the chickens, which have withdrawn + from the garden just when they were most attractive. It is strange what a + taste you suddenly have for things you never liked before. The squash has + always been to me a dish of contempt; but I eat it now as if it were my + best friend. I never cared for the beet or the bean; but I fancy now that + I could eat them all, tops and all, so 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 of them. + </p> + <p> + I had begun to nurse a good deal of pride in presiding over a table + whereon was the fruit of my honest industry. But woman!—John Stuart + Mill is right when he says that we do not know anything about women. Six + thousand years is as one day with them. I thought I had something to do + with those vegetables. But when I saw Polly seated at her side of the + table, presiding over the new and susceptible vegetables, flanked by the + squash and the beans, and smiling upon the green corn and the new + potatoes, as cool as the cucumbers which 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 was over. You would have thought that she owned all the + vegetables, and had raised them all from their earliest years. Such quiet, + vegetable airs! Such gracious appropriation! At length I said,— + “Polly, do you know who planted that squash, or those squashes?” + </p> + <p> + “James, I suppose.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, yes, perhaps James did plant them, to a certain extent. But who + hoed them?” + </p> + <p> + “We did.” + </p> + <p> + “We did!” I said, in the most sarcastic manner. + </p> + <p> + And I suppose we put on the sackcloth and ashes, when the striped bug came + 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 I, uncorking 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 I did hope—but I will say no more.” + </p> + <p> + Observation.—In this sort of family discussion, “I will say no more” + is the most effective thing you can close up with. + </p> + <p> + I am not an alarmist. I hope I am as cool as anybody this hot summer. But + I am quite ready to say to Polly, or any other woman, “You can have the + ballot; only leave me the vegetables, or, what is more important, the + consciousness of power in vegetables.” I see how it is. Woman is now + supreme in the house. She already stretches out her hand to grasp the + garden. She will gradually control everything. Woman is one of the ablest + and most cunning creatures who have ever mingled in human affairs. I + understand those women who say they don't want the ballot. They purpose to + hold the real power while we go through the mockery of making laws. They + want the power without the responsibility. (Suppose my squash had not come + up, or my beans—as they threatened at one time—had gone the + wrong way: where would I have been?) We are to be held to all the + responsibilities. Woman takes the lead in all the departments, leaving us + politics only. And what is politics? Let me raise the vegetables of a + nation, says Polly, and I care not who makes its politics. Here I sat at + the table, armed with the ballot, but really powerless among my own + vegetables. While we are being amused by the ballot, woman is quietly + taking things into her own hands. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ELEVENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Perhaps, after all, it is not what you get out of a garden, but what you + put into it, that is the most remunerative. What is a man? A question + frequently asked, and never, so far as I know, satisfactorily answered. He + commonly spends his seventy years, if so many are given him, in getting + ready to enjoy himself. How many hours, how many minutes, does one get of + that pure content which is happiness? I do not mean laziness, which is + always discontent; but that serene enjoyment, in which all the natural + senses have easy play, and the unnatural ones have a holiday. There is + probably nothing that has such a tranquilizing effect, and leads into such + content as gardening. By gardening, I do not mean that insane desire to + raise vegetables which some have; but the philosophical 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. + </p> + <p> + In half an hour I can hoe myself right away from this world, as we + commonly see it, into a large place, where there are no obstacles. What an + occupation it is for thought! The mind broods like a hen on eggs. The + trouble is, that you are not thinking about anything, 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 trellis, which is similar to that of the + squirrel in running up a tree. We all have something in our nature that + requires contact with the earth. In the solitude of garden-labor, one gets + into a sort of communion with the vegetable life, which makes the old + mythology possible. For instance, I can believe that the dryads are plenty + this summer: my garden is like an ash-heap. Almost all the moisture it has + had in weeks has been the sweat of honest industry. + </p> + <p> + The pleasure of gardening in these days, when the thermometer is at + ninety, is one that I fear I shall not be able to make intelligible to my + readers, many of whom do not appreciate the delight of soaking in the + sunshine. I suppose that the sun, going through a man, as it will on such + a day, takes out of him rheumatism, consumption, and every other disease, + except sudden death—from sun-stroke. But, aside from this, there is + an odor from the evergreens, the hedges, the various plants and vines, + that is only expressed and set afloat at a high temperature, which is + delicious; and, hot as it may be, a little breeze will come at intervals, + which can be heard in the treetops, and which is an unobtrusive + benediction. I hear a quail or two whistling in the ravine; and there is a + good deal of fragmentary conversation going on among the birds, even on + the warmest days. The companionship of Calvin, also, counts for a good + deal. He usually attends me, unless I work too long in one place; sitting + down on the turf, displaying the ermine of his breast, and watching my + movements with great intelligence. He has a feline and genuine love for + the beauties of Nature, and will establish himself where there is a good + view, and look on it for hours. He always accompanies us when we go to + gather the vegetables, seeming to be desirous to know what we are to have + for dinner. He is a connoisseur in the garden; being fond of almost all + the vegetables, except the cucumber,—a dietetic hint to man. I + believe it is also said that the pig will not eat tobacco. These are + important facts. It is singular, however, that those who hold up the pigs + as models to us never hold us up as models to the pigs. + </p> + <p> + I wish I knew as much about natural history and the habits of animals as + Calvin does. He is the closest observer I ever saw; and there are few + species of animals on the place that he has not analyzed. I think he has, + to use a euphemism very applicable to him, got outside of every one of + them, except the toad. To the toad he is 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 the shade near my strawberry-beds, to shell + peas, Calvin is always lying near in apparent obliviousness; but not the + slightest unusual sound can be made in the bushes, that he is not alert, + and prepared to investigate the cause of it. It is this habit of + observation, so cultivated, which has given him such a trained mind, and + made him so philosophical. It is within the capacity of even the humblest + of us to attain this. + </p> + <p> + And, speaking of the philosophical temper, there is no class of men whose + society is more to be desired for this quality than that of plumbers. They + are the most agreeable men I know; and the boys in the business begin to + be agreeable very early. I suspect the secret of it is, that they are + agreeable by the hour. In the driest days, my fountain became disabled: + the pipe was stopped up. A couple of plumbers, 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 sit down and talk about it,—talk by the hour. + Some of their guesses and remarks were exceedingly ingenious; and their + general observations on other subjects were excellent in their way, and + could hardly have been better if they had been made by the job. The work + dragged a little, as it is apt to do by the hour. The plumbers had + occasion to make me several visits. Sometimes they would find, upon + arrival, that they had forgotten some indispensable tool; and one would go + back to the shop, a mile and a half, after it; and his comrade would await + his return with the most exemplary patience, and sit down and talk,—always + by the hour. I do not know but it is a habit to have something wanted at + the shop. They seemed to me very good workmen, and always willing to stop + and talk about the job, or anything else, when I went near them. Nor had + they any of that impetuous hurry that is said to be the bane of our + American civilization. To their credit be it said, that I never observed + anything of it in them. They can afford to wait. Two of them will + sometimes wait nearly half a day while a comrade goes for a tool. They are + patient and philosophical. It is a great pleasure to meet such men. One + only wishes there was some work he could do for them by the hour. There + ought to be reciprocity. I think they have very nearly solved the problem + of Life: it is to work for other people, never for yourself, and get your + pay by the hour. You then have no anxiety, and little work. If you do + things by the job, you are perpetually driven: the hours are scourges. If + you work by the hour, you gently sail on the stream of Time, which is + always bearing you on to the haven of Pay, whether you make any effort, or + not. Working by the hour tends to make one moral. A plumber working by the + 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 impatience at such a vexation, + working by the hour. Nothing can move a man who is paid by the hour. How + sweet the flight of time seems to his calm mind! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TWELFTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Horace Greeley, the introduction of whose name confers an honor upon + this page (although I ought to say that it is used entirely without his + consent), is my sole authority in agriculture. In politics I do not dare + to follow him; but in agriculture he is irresistible. When, therefore, I + find him advising Western farmers not to hill up their corn, I think that + his advice must be political. You must hill up your corn. People always + have hilled up their corn. It would take a constitutional amendment to + change the practice, that has pertained ever since maize was raised. “It + will stand the drought better,” says Mr. Greeley, “if the ground is left + level.” I have corn in my garden, ten and twelve feet high, strong and + lusty, standing the drought like a grenadier; and it is hilled. In + advising this radical change, Mr. Greeley evidently has a political + purpose. He might just as well say that you should not hill beans, when + everybody knows that a “hill of beans” is one of the most expressive + symbols of disparagement. When I become too lazy to hill my corn, I, too, + shall go into politics. + </p> + <p> + I am satisfied that it is useless to try to cultivate “pusley.” I set a + little of it one side, and gave it some extra care. It did not thrive as + well as that which I was fighting. The fact is, there is a spirit of moral + perversity in the plant, which makes it grow the more, the more it is + interfered with. I am satisfied of that. I doubt if any one has raised + more “pusley” this year than I have; and my warfare with it has been + continual. Neither of us has slept much. If you combat it, it will grow, + to use an expression that will be understood by many, like the devil. I + have a neighbor, 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 entire ground covered + with a thick and luxurious carpet of “pusley,” with a turnip-top worked in + here and there as an ornament. I have seldom seen so thrifty a field. I + advised my neighbor next time to sow “pusley” and then he might get a few + turnips. I wish there was more demand in our city markets for “pusley” as + a salad. I can recommend it. + </p> + <p> + It does not take a great man to soon discover that, in raising anything, + the greater part of the plants goes into stalk and leaf, and the fruit is + a most inconsiderable portion. I plant and hoe a hill of corn: it grows + green and stout, and waves its broad leaves high in the air, and is months + in perfecting itself, and then yields us not enough for a dinner. It grows + because it delights to do so,—to take the juices out of my ground, + to absorb my fertilizers, to wax luxuriant, and disport itself in the + summer air, and with very little thought of making any return to me. I + might go all through my garden and fruit trees with a similar result. I + have heard of places where there was very little land to the acre. It is + universally true that there is a great deal of vegetable show and fuss for + the result produced. I do not complain of this. One cannot expect + vegetables to be better than men: and they make a great deal of + ostentatious splurge; and many of them come to no result at last. Usually, + the more show of leaf and wood, the less fruit. This melancholy reflection + is thrown in here in order to make dog-days seem cheerful in comparison. + </p> + <p> + One of the minor pleasures of life is that of controlling vegetable + 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 thrill of its life in + your nerves. To control and culture a strong, thrifty plant in this way is + like steering a ship under full headway, or driving a locomotive with your + hand on the lever, or pulling the reins over a fast horse when his blood + and tail are up. I do not understand, by the way, the pleasure of the + jockey in setting up the tail of the horse artificially. If I had a horse + with a tail not able to sit up, I should feed the horse, and curry him + into good spirits, and let him set up his own tail. When I see a poor, + spiritless horse going by with an artificially set-up tail, it is only a + signal of distress. I desire to be surrounded only by healthy, vigorous + plants and trees, which require constant cutting-in and management. Merely + to cut away dead branches is like perpetual attendance at a funeral, and + puts one in low spirits. I want to have a garden and orchard rise up and + meet me every morning, with the request to “lay on, Macduff.” I respect + old age; but an old currant-bush, hoary with mossy bark, is a melancholy + spectacle. + </p> + <p> + I suppose the time has come when I am expected to say something about + fertilizers: all agriculturists do. When you plant, you think you cannot + fertilize too much: when you get the bills for the manure, you think you + cannot fertilize too little. Of course you do not expect to get the value + of the manure back in fruits and vegetables; but something is due to + science,—to chemistry in particular. You must have a knowledge of + soils, must have your soil analyzed, and then go into a course of + experiments to find what it needs. It needs analyzing,—that, I am + clear about: everything needs that. You had better have the soil analyzed + before you buy: if there is “pusley” in it, let it alone. See if it is a + soil that requires much hoeing, and how fine it will get if there is no + rain for two months. But when you come to fertilizing, if I understand the + agricultural authorities, you open a pit that will ultimately swallow you + up,—farm and all. It is the great subject of modern times, how to + fertilize without ruinous expense; how, in short, not to starve the earth + to death while we get our living out of it. Practically, the business is + hardly to the taste of a person of a poetic turn of mind. The details of + fertilizing are not agreeable. Michael Angelo, who tried every art, 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 me to say, that, in carrying on a + garden yourself, you must have a “consulting” gardener; that is, a man to + do the heavy and unpleasant work. To such a man, I say, in language used + by Demosthenes to the Athenians, and which is my advice to all gardeners, + “Fertilize, fertilize, fertilize!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THIRTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I find that gardening has unsurpassed advantages for the study of natural + history; and some scientific facts have come under my own observation, + which cannot fail to interest naturalists and un-naturalists in about the + same degree. Much, for instance, has been written about the toad, an + animal without which no garden would be complete. But little account has + been made of his value: the beauty of his eye alone has been dwelt on; and + little has been said of his mouth, and its important function as a fly and + bug trap. His habits, and even his origin, have been misunderstood. Why, + as an illustration, are toads so plenty after a thunder-shower? All my + life long, no one has been able to answer me that question. Why, after a + heavy shower, and in the midst of it, do such multitudes of toads, + especially little ones, hop about on the gravel-walks? For many years, I + believed that they rained down; and I suppose many people think so still. + They are so small, and they come in such numbers only in the shower, that + the supposition is not a violent one. “Thick as toads after a shower,” is + one of our best proverbs. I asked an explanation 'of this of a thoughtful + woman,—indeed, a leader in the great movement to have all the toads + hop in any direction, without any distinction of sex or religion. Her + reply was, that the toads come out during the shower to get water. This, + however, is not the fact. I have discovered that they come out not to get + water. I deluged a dry flower-bed, the other night, with pailful after + pailful of water. Instantly the toads came out of their holes in the dirt, + by tens and twenties and fifties, to escape death by drowning. The big + ones fled away in a ridiculous streak of hopping; and the little ones + sprang about in the wildest confusion. The toad is just like any other + land animal: when his house is full of water, he quits it. These facts, + with the drawings of the water and the toads, are at the service of the + distinguished scientists of Albany in New York, who were so much impressed + by the Cardiff Giant. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0133}.jpg" alt="{0133}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0133}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + The domestic cow is another animal whose ways I have a chance to study, + and also to obliterate in the garden. One of my neighbors has a cow, but + no land; and he seems desirous to pasture her on the surface of the land + of other people: a very reasonable desire. The man proposed that he should + be allowed to cut the grass from my grounds for his cow. I knew the cow, + having often had her in my garden; knew her gait and the size of her feet, + which struck me as a little large for the size of the body. Having no cow + myself, but acquaintance with my neighbor's, I told him that I thought it + would be fair for him to have the grass. He was, therefore, to keep the + grass nicely cut, and to keep his cow at home. I waited some time after + the grass needed cutting; and, as my neighbor did not appear, I hired it + 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 that opportunity. + When the grass grew again, the neighbor did not appear with his scythe; + but one morning I found the cow tethered on the sward, hitched near the + clothes-horse, a short distance from the house. This seemed to be the + man's idea of the best way to cut the grass. I disliked to have the cow + there, because I knew her inclination to pull up the stake, and transfer + her field of mowing to the garden, but especially because of her voice. + She has the most melancholy “moo” I ever heard. It is like the wail of one + uninfallible, excommunicated, and lost. It is a most distressing perpetual + reminder of the brevity of life and the shortness of feed. It is + unpleasant to the family. We sometimes hear it in the middle of the night, + breaking the silence like a suggestion of coming calamity. It is as bad as + the howling of a dog at a funeral. + </p> + <p> + I told the man about it; but he seemed to think that he was not + responsible for the cow's voice. I then told him to take her away; and he + did, at intervals, shifting her to different parts of the grounds in my + absence, so that the desolate voice would startle us from unexpected + quarters. If I were to unhitch the cow, and turn her loose, I knew where + she would go. If I were to lead her away, the 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 my excellent neighbor reduced + me. But I found him, one Sunday morning,—a day when it 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. +</p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0139}.jpg" alt="{0139}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0139}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + +<p> +I told the man that I could not + have the cow in the grounds. He said, “All right, boss;” but he did not go + away. I asked him to clear out. The man, who is a French sympathizer from + the Republic of Ireland, kept his temper perfectly. He said he wasn't + doing anything, just feeding his cow a bit: he wouldn't make me the least + trouble in the world. I 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 premises. The imperturbable man assented to + everything that I said, and kept on feeding his cow. Before I got him to + go to fresh scenes and pastures new, the Sabbath was almost broken; but it + was saved by one thing: it is difficult to be emphatic when no one is + emphatic on the other side. The man and his cow have taught me a great + lesson, which I shall recall when I keep a cow. I can recommend this cow, + if anybody wants one, as a steady boarder, whose keeping will cost the + owner little; but, if her milk is at all like her voice, those who drink + it are on the straight road to lunacy. + </p> + <p> + I think I have said that we have a game-preserve. We keep quails, or try + to, in the thickly wooded, bushed, and brushed ravine. This bird is a + great favorite with us, dead or alive, on account of its tasteful plumage, + its tender flesh, its domestic virtues, and its pleasant piping. Besides, + although I appreciate toads and cows, and all that sort of thing, I like + to have a game-preserve more in the English style. And we did. For in + July, while the game-law was on, and the young quails were coming on, we + were awakened one morning by firing,—musketry-firing, close at hand. + My first thought was, that war was declared; but, as I should never pay + much attention to war declared at that time in the morning, I went to + sleep again. But the occurrence was repeated,—and not only early in + the morning, but at night. There was calling of dogs, breaking down of + brush, and firing of guns. It is 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. Their best time was about sunrise; but, before one + could dress and get to the front, they would retire. + </p> + <p> + One morning, about four o'clock, I heard the battle renewed. I sprang up, + but not in arms, and went to a window. Polly (like another 'blessed + damozel') flew to another window,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The blessed damozel leaned out + From the gold bar of heaven,” + </pre> + <p> + and reconnoitered from behind the blinds. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The wonder was not yet quite gone + From that still look of hers,” + </pre> + <p> + when an armed man and a legged dog appeared in the opening. I was + vigilantly watching him. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + .... “And now + She spoke through the still weather.” + </pre> + <p> + “Are you afraid to speak to him?” asked Polly. + </p> + <p> + Not exactly, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ...."she spoke as when + The stars sang in their spheres. +</pre> + <p> + “Stung by this inquiry, I leaned out of the window till + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The bar I leaned on (was) warm,” + </pre> + <p> + and cried,— “Halloo, there! What are you doing?” + </p> + <p> + “Look out he don't shoot you,” called out Polly from the other window, + suddenly going on another tack. + </p> + <p> + 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 to be had. + </p> + <p> + “You have no business here: what are you after?” I repeated. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0145}.jpg" alt="{0145}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0145}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + “Looking for a lost hen,” said the man as he strode away. + </p> + <p> + The reply was so satisfactory and conclusive that I shut the blinds and + went to bed. + </p> + <p> + But one evening I overhauled one of the poachers. Hearing his dog in the + thicket, I rushed through the brush, and came in sight of the hunter as he + was retreating down the road. He came to a halt; and we had some + conversation in a high key. Of course I threatened to prosecute him. I + believe that is the thing to do in such cases; but how I was to do it, + when I did not know his name or ancestry, and couldn't see his face, never + occurred to me. (I remember, now, that a farmer once proposed to prosecute + me when I was fishing in a trout-brook on his farm, and asked my name for + that purpose.) He said he should smile to see me prosecute him. + </p> + <p> + “You can't do it: there ain't no notice up about trespassing.” + </p> + <p> + This view of the common law impressed me; and I said, + </p> + <p> + “But these are private grounds.” + </p> + <p> + “Private h—-!” was all his response. + </p> + <p> + You can't argue much with a man who has a gun in his hands, when you have + none. Besides, it might be a needle-gun, for aught I knew. I gave it up, + and we separated. + </p> + <p> + There is this disadvantage about having a game preserve attached to your + garden: it makes life too lively. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOURTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + In these golden latter August days, Nature has come to a serene + equilibrium. Having flowered and fruited, she is enjoying herself. I can + see how things are going: it is a down-hill business after this; but, for + the time being, it is like swinging in a hammock,—such a delicious + air, such a graceful repose! I take off my hat as I stroll into the garden + and look about; and it does seem as if Nature had sounded a truce. I did + n't ask for it. I went out with a hoe; but the serene sweetness disarms + me. Thrice is he armed who has a long-handled hoe, with a double blade. + Yet to-day I am almost ashamed to appear in such a belligerent fashion, + with this terrible mitrailleuse of gardening. + </p> + <p> + The tomatoes are getting tired of ripening, and are beginning to go into a + worthless condition,—green. The cucumbers cumber the ground,—great + yellow, over-ripe objects, no more to be compared 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 delicate lace-work, are now + ready to leave the vine. I know they are ripe if they come easily off the + stem. + </p> + <p> + Moral Observations.—You can tell when people are ripe by their + willingness to let go. Richness and ripeness are not exactly the same. The + rich are apt to hang to the stem with tenacity. I have nothing against the + rich. If I were not virtuous, I should like to be rich. But we cannot have + everything, as the man said when he was down with small-pox and cholera, + and the yellow fever came into the neighborhood. + </p> + <p> + Now, the grapes, soaked in this liquid gold, called air, begin to turn, + mindful of the injunction, “to turn or burn.” The clusters under the + leaves are getting quite purple, but look better than they taste. I think + there is no danger but they will be gathered as soon as they are ripe. One + of the blessings of having an open garden is, that I do not have to watch + my fruit: a dozen youngsters do that, and let it waste no time after it + matures. I wish it were possible to grow a variety of grape like the + explosive bullets, that should explode in the stomach: the vine would make + such a nice border for the garden,—a masked battery of grape. The + pears, too, are getting russet and heavy; and here and there amid the + shining leaves one gleams as ruddy as the cheek of the Nutbrown Maid. The + Flemish Beauties come off readily from the stem, if I take them in my + hand: they say all kinds of beauty come off by handling. + </p> + <p> + The garden is peace as much as if it were an empire. Even the man's cow + lies down under the tree where the man has tied her, with such an air of + contentment, 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. I have + not the heart to tell the man to take you away: and it would do no good if + I had; he wouldn't do it. The man has not a taking way. Munch on, ruminant + creature. + </p> + <p> + The frost will soon come; the grass will be brown. I will be charitable + while this blessed lull continues: for our benevolences must soon be + turned to other and more distant objects,—the amelioration of the + condition of the Jews, the education of theological young men in the West, + and the like. + </p> + <p> + I do not know that these appearances are deceitful; but I sufficiently + know that this is a wicked world, to be glad that I have taken it on + shares. In 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 it in her apron; nearly always, however, letting go when it drops, + the fall is so sudden. The sun gets in her face; and, every time a pear + comes down it is a surprise, like having a tooth out, she says. + </p> + <p> + “If I could n't hold an apron better than that!” + </p> + <p> + But the sentence is not finished: it is useless to finish that sort of a + sentence in this delicious weather. Besides, conversation is dangerous. + As, for instance, towards evening I am preparing a bed for a sowing of + turnips,—not that I like turnips in the least; but this is the + season to sow them. Polly comes out, and extemporizes her usual seat to + “consult me” about matters while I work. I well know that something is + coming. + </p> + <p> + “This is a rotation of crops, is n't it?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes: I have rotated the gone-to-seed lettuce off, and expect to rotate + the turnips in; it is a political fashion.” + </p> + <p> + “Is n't it a shame that the tomatoes are all getting ripe at once? What a + lot of squashes! I wish we had an oyster-bed. Do you want me to help you + any more than I am helping?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I thank you.” (I wonder what all this is about?) + </p> + <p> + “Don't you think we could sell some strawberries next year?” + </p> + <p> + “By all means, sell anything. We shall no doubt get rich out of this + acre.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be foolish.” + </p> + <p> + And now! + </p> + <p> + “Don't you think it would be nice to have a?”.... + </p> + <p> + And Polly unfolds a small scheme of benevolence, which is not quite enough + to break me, and is really to be executed in an economical manner. “Would + n't that be nice?” + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0155}.jpg" alt="{0155}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0155}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + “Oh, yes! And where is the money to come from?” + </p> + <p> + “I thought we had agreed to sell the strawberries.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly. But I think we would make more money if we sold the plants + now.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Polly, concluding the whole matter, “I am going to do it.” + And, having thus “consulted” me, Polly goes away; and I put in the + turnip-seeds quite thick, determined to raise enough to sell. But not even + this mercenary thought can ruffle my mind as I rake off the loamy bed. I + notice, however, that the spring smell has gone out of the dirt. That went + into the first crop. + </p> + <p> + In this peaceful unison with yielding nature, I was a little taken aback + to find that a new enemy had turned up. The celery had just rubbed through + the fiery scorching of the drought, and stood a faint chance to grow; when + I noticed on the green leaves a big green-and-black worm, called, I + believe, the celery-worm: but I don't know who called him; I am sure I did + not. It was almost ludicrous that he should turn up here, just at the end + of the season, when I supposed that my war with the living animals was + over. Yet he was, no doubt, predestinated; for he went to work as + cheerfully as if he had arrived in June, when everything was fresh and + vigorous. It beats me—Nature does. I doubt not, that, if I were to + leave my garden now for a week, it would n't know me on my return. The + patch I scratched over for the turnips, and left as clean as earth, is + already full of ambitious “pusley,” which grows with all the confidence of + youth and the skill of old age. It beats the serpent as an emblem of + immortality. While all the others of us in the garden rest and sit in + comfort a moment, upon the summit of the summer, it is as rampant and + vicious as ever. It accepts no armistice. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIFTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + It is said that absence conquers all things, love included; but it has a + contrary effect on a garden. I was absent for two or three weeks. I left + my garden a paradise, as paradises go in this protoplastic world; and when + I returned, the trail of the serpent was over it all, so to speak. (This + is in addition to the actual snakes in it, 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 to, and the early grapes and pears. The green worm had also + seen to about half the celery; and a large flock of apparently perfectly + domesticated chickens were roaming over the ground, gossiping in the hot + September sun, and picking up any odd trifle that might be left. On the + whole, the garden could not have been better seen to; though it would take + a sharp eye to see the potato-vines amid the rampant grass and weeds. + </p> + <p> + The new strawberry-plants, for one thing, had taken advantage of my + absence. Every one of them had sent out as many scarlet runners as an + Indian tribe has. Some of them had blossomed; and a few had gone so far as + to bear ripe berries,—long, pear-shaped fruit, hanging like the + ear-pendants of an East Indian bride. I could not but admire the + persistence of these zealous plants, which seemed determined to propagate + themselves both by seeds and roots, and make sure of immortality in some + way. Even the Colfax variety was as ambitious as the others. After 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 politicians mean; and I shall let this variety grow until after + the next election, at least; although I hear that the fruit is small, and + rather sour. If there is any variety of strawberries that really declines + to run, and devotes itself to a private life of fruit-bearing, I should + like to get it. I may mention here, since we are on politics, that the + Doolittle raspberries had sprawled all over the strawberry-bed's: so true + is it that politics makes strange bedfellows. + </p> + <p> + But another enemy had come into the strawberries, which, after all that + has been said in these papers, I am almost ashamed to mention. But does + the preacher in the pulpit, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, shrink + from speaking of sin? I refer, of course, to the greatest enemy of + mankind, “p-sl-y.” The ground was carpeted with it. I should think that + this was the tenth crop of the season; and it was as good as the first. I + see no reason why our northern soil is not as prolific as that of the + tropics, and will not produce as many crops in the year. The mistake we + make is in trying to force things that are not natural to it. I have no + doubt that, if we turn our attention to “pusley,” we can beat the world. + </p> + <p> + I had no idea, until recently, how generally this simple and thrifty plant + is feared and hated. Far beyond what I had regarded as the bounds of + civilization, it is held as one of the mysteries of a fallen world; + accompanying the home missionary on his wanderings, and preceding the + footsteps of the Tract Society. I was not long ago in the Adirondacks. We + had built a camp for the night, in the heart of the woods, high up on + John's Brook and near the foot of Mount Marcy: I can see the lovely spot + now. It was on the bank of the crystal, rocky stream, at the foot of high + and slender falls, which poured into a broad amber basin. Out of this + basin we had just taken trout enough for our supper, which had been + killed, and roasted over the fire on sharp sticks, and eaten before they + had an opportunity to feel the chill of this deceitful world. We were + lying under the hut of spruce-bark, on fragrant hemlock-boughs, talking, + after supper. In front of us was a huge fire of birchlogs; and over it we + could see the top of the falls glistening in the moonlight; and the roar + of the falls, and the brawling of the stream near us, filled all the + ancient woods. It was a scene upon which one would think no thought of sin + could enter. We were talking with old Phelps, the guide. Old Phelps is at + once guide, philosopher, and friend. He knows the woods and streams and + mountains, and their savage inhabitants, as 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 is as grizzly as an old + cedar-tree; and he speaks in a high falsetto voice, which would be + invaluable to a boatswain in a storm at sea. + </p> + <p> + We had been talking of all subjects about which rational men are + interested,—bears, panthers, trapping, the habits of trout, the + tariff, the internal revenue (to wit the injustice of laying such a tax on + tobacco, and none on dogs:—“There ain't no dog in the United + States,” says the guide, at the top of his voice, “that earns his + living”), the Adventists, the Gorner Grat, Horace Greeley, religion, the + propagation of seeds in the wilderness (as, for instance, where were the + seeds lying for ages that spring up into certain plants and flowers as + soon as a spot is cleared anywhere in the most remote forest; and why does + a growth of oak-trees always come up after a growth of pine has been + removed?)—in short, we had pretty nearly reached a solution of many + mysteries, when Phelps suddenly exclaimed with uncommon energy,— + “Wall, there's one thing that beats me!” + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” we asked with undisguised curiosity. + </p> + <p> + “That's 'pusley'!” he replied, in the tone of a man who has come to one + door in life which is hopelessly shut, and from which he retires in + despair. + </p> + <p> + “Where it comes from I don't know, nor what to do with it. It's in my + garden; and I can't get rid of it. It beats me.” + </p> + <p> + About “pusley” the guide had no theory and no hope. A feeling of awe came + over me, as we lay there at midnight, hushed by the sound of the stream + and the rising wind in the spruce-tops. Then man can go nowhere that + “pusley” will not attend him. Though he camp on the Upper Au Sable, or + penetrate the forest where rolls the Allegash, and hear no sound save his + own allegations, he will not escape it. It has entered the happy valley of + Keene, although there is yet no church there, and only a feeble school + part of the year. Sin travels faster than they that ride in chariots. I + take my hoe, and begin; but I feel that I am warring against something + whose roots take hold on H. + </p> + <p> + By the time a man gets to be eighty, he learns that he is compassed by + limitations, and that there has been a natural boundary set to his + individual powers. As he goes on in life, he begins to doubt his ability + to destroy all evil and to reform all abuses, and to suspect that there + will be much left to do after he has done. I stepped into my garden in the + spring, not doubting that I should be easily master of the weeds. I have + simply learned that an institution which is at least six thousand years + old, and I believe six millions, is not to be put down in one season. + </p> + <p> + I have been digging my potatoes, if anybody cares to know it. I planted + them in what are called “Early Rose,”—the rows a little less than + three feet apart; but the vines came to an early close in the drought. + Digging potatoes is a pleasant, soothing occupation, but not poetical. It + is good for the mind, unless they are too small (as many of mine are), + when it begets a want of gratitude to the bountiful earth. What small + potatoes we all are, compared with what we might be! We don't plow deep + enough, any of us, for one thing. I shall put in the plow next year, and + give the tubers room enough. I think they felt the lack of it this year: + many of them seemed ashamed to come out so small. There is 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. Life has few such moments. But then they must be picked up. The + picking-up, in this world, is always the unpleasant part of it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SIXTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I do not hold myself bound to answer the question, Does gardening pay? It + is so difficult to define what is meant by paying. There is a popular + notion that, unless a thing pays, you had better let it alone; and I may + say that there is a public opinion that will not let a man or woman + continue in the indulgence of a fancy that does not pay. And public + opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten + commandments: I therefore yield to popular clamor when I discuss the + profit of my garden. + </p> + <p> + As I look at it, you might as well ask, Does a sunset pay? I know that a + sunset is commonly looked on as a cheap entertainment; but it is 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 it as we do for the opera; but the + conditions under which it is to be enjoyed are rather dear. Among them I + should name a good suit of clothes, including some trifling ornament,—not + including back hair for one sex, or the parting of it in the middle for + the other. I should add also a good dinner, well cooked and digestible; + and the cost of a fair education, extended, perhaps, through generations + in which sensibility and love of beauty grew. What I mean is, that if a + man is hungry and naked, and half a savage, or with the love of beauty + undeveloped in him, a sunset is thrown away on him: so that it appears + that the conditions of the enjoyment of a sunset are as costly as anything + in our civilization. + </p> + <p> + Of course there is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can + only estimate what a thing is worth to you. Does gardening in a city pay? + You might as well ask if it pays to keep hens, or a trotting-horse, or to + wear a gold ring, or to keep your lawn cut, or your hair cut. It is as you + like it. In a certain sense, it is a sort of profanation to consider if my + garden pays, or to set a money-value upon my delight in it. I fear that + you could not put it in money. Job had the right idea in his mind when he + asked, “Is there any taste in the white of an egg?” Suppose there is not! + What! shall I set a price upon the tender asparagus or the crisp lettuce, + which made the sweet spring a reality? Shall I turn into merchandise the + red strawberry, the pale green pea, the high-flavored raspberry, the + sanguinary beet, that love-plant the tomato, and the corn which did not + waste its sweetness on the desert air, but, after flowing in a sweet rill + through all our summer life, mingled at last with the engaging bean in a + pool of succotash? Shall I compute in figures what daily freshness and + health and delight the garden yields, let alone the large crop of + anticipation I gathered as soon as the first seeds got above ground? I + appeal to any gardening man of sound mind, if that which pays him best in + gardening is not that which he cannot show in his trial-balance. Yet I + yield to public opinion, when I proceed to make such a balance; and I do + it with the utmost confidence in figures. + </p> + <p> + I select as a representative vegetable, in order to estimate the cost of + gardening, the potato. In my statement, I shall not include the interest + on the value of the land. I throw in the land, because it would otherwise + have stood idle: the thing generally raised on city land is taxes. I + therefore make the following statement of the cost and income of my + potato-crop, a part of it estimated in connection with other garden labor. + I have tried to make it so as to satisfy the income-tax collector:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Plowing.......................................$0.50 + Seed..........................................$1.50 + Manure........................................ 8.00 + Assistance in planting and digging, 3 days.... 6.75 + Labor of self in planting, hoeing, digging, + picking up, 5 days at 17 cents........... 0.85 + ——— + Total Cost................$17.60 +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Two thousand five hundred mealy potatoes, + at 2 cents..............................$50.00 + Small potatoes given to neighbor's pig........ .50 + + Total return..............$50.50 + + Balance, profit in cellar......$32.90 +</pre> + <p> + Some of these items need explanation. I have charged nothing for my own + time waiting for the potatoes to grow. My time in hoeing, fighting weeds, + etc., is put in at five days: it may have been a little more. Nor have I + put in anything for cooling drinks while hoeing. I leave this out from + principle, because I always recommend water to others. I had some + difficulty in fixing the rate of my own wages. It was the first time I had + an opportunity of paying what I thought labor was worth; and I determined + to make a good thing of it for once. I figured it right down to European + prices,—seventeen cents a day for unskilled labor. Of course, I + boarded myself. I ought to say that I fixed the wages after the work was + done, or I might have been tempted to do as some masons did who worked for + me at four dollars a day. They lay in the shade and slept the sleep of + honest toil full half the time, at least all the time I was away. I have + reason to believe that when the wages of mechanics are raised to eight and + ten dollars a day, the workmen will not come at all: they will merely send + their cards. + </p> + <p> + I do not see any possible fault in the above figures. I ought to say that + I deferred putting a value on the potatoes until I had footed up the debit + column. This is always the safest way to do. I had twenty-five bushels. I + roughly estimated that there are one hundred good ones to the bushel. + Making my own market price, I asked two cents apiece for them. This I + should have considered dirt cheap last June, when I was going down the + rows with the hoe. If any one thinks that two cents each is high, let him + try to raise them. + </p> + <p> + Nature is “awful smart.” I intend to be complimentary in saying so. She + shows it in little things. I have mentioned my attempt to put in a few + modest turnips, near the close of the season. I sowed the seeds, by the + way, in the most liberal manner. Into three or four short rows I presume I + put enough to sow an acre; and they all came up,—came up as thick as + grass, as crowded and useless as babies in a Chinese village. Of course, + they had to be thinned out; that is, pretty much all pulled up; and it + took me a long time; for it takes a conscientious man some time to decide + which are the best and healthiest plants to spare. After all, I spared too + many. That is the great danger everywhere in this world (it may not be in + the next): things are too thick; we lose all in grasping for too much. The + Scotch say, that no man ought to thin out his own turnips, because he will + not sacrifice enough to leave room for the remainder to grow: he should + get his neighbor, who does not care for the plants, to do it. But this is + mere talk, and aside from the point: if there is anything I desire to + avoid in these agricultural papers, it is digression. I did think that + putting in these turnips so late in the season, when general activity has + ceased, and in a remote part of the garden, they would pass unnoticed. But + Nature never even winks, as I can see. The tender blades were scarcely out + of the ground when she sent a small black fly, which seemed to have been + born and held in reserve for this purpose,—to cut the leaves. They + speedily made lace-work of the whole bed. Thus everything appears to have + its special enemy,—except, perhaps, p——y: nothing ever + troubles that. + </p> + <p> + Did the Concord Grape ever come to more luscious perfection than this + year? or yield so abundantly? The golden sunshine has passed into them, + and distended their purple skins almost to bursting. Such heavy clusters! + such bloom! such sweetness! such meat and drink in their round globes! + What a fine fellow Bacchus would have been, if he had only signed the + pledge when he was a young man! I have taken off clusters that were as + compact and almost as large as the Black Hamburgs. It is slow work picking + them. I do not see how the gatherers for the vintage ever get off enough. + It takes so long to disentangle the bunches from the leaves and the + interlacing vines and the supporting tendrils; and then I like to hold up + each bunch and look at it in the sunlight, and get the fragrance and the + bloom of it, and show it to Polly, who is making herself useful, as taster + and companion, at the foot of the ladder, before dropping it into the + basket. But we 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 ripest + bunches as well as anybody, and tries them all. If he would take a whole + bunch here and there, say half the number, and be off with it, I should + not so much care. But he will not. He pecks away at all the bunches, and + spoils as many as he can. It is time he went south. + </p> + <p> + There is no prettier sight, to my eye, than a gardener on a ladder in his + grape-arbor, in these golden days, selecting the heaviest clusters of + grapes, and handing them down to one and another of a group of neighbors + and friends, who stand under the shade of the leaves, flecked with the + sunlight, and cry, “How sweet!” “What nice ones!” and the like,—remarks + encouraging to the man on the ladder. It is great pleasure to see people + eat grapes. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0181}.jpg" alt="{0181}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0181}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + Moral Truth.—I have no doubt that grapes taste best in other + people's mouths. It is an old notion that it is easier to be generous than + to be stingy. I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous + from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity. + </p> + <p> + Philosophical Observation.—Nothing shows one who his friends are + like prosperity and ripe fruit. I had a good friend in the country, whom I + almost never visited except in cherry-time. By your fruits you shall know + them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SEVENTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + I like to go into the garden these warm latter days, and muse. To muse is + to sit in the sun, and not think of anything. I am not sure but goodness + comes out of people who bask in the sun, as it does out of a sweet apple + roasted before the fire. The late September and October sun of this + latitude is something like the sun of extreme Lower Italy: you can stand a + good deal of it, and apparently soak a winter supply into the system. If + one only could take in his winter fuel in this way! The next great + discovery will, very likely, be the conservation of sunlight. In the + correlation of forces, I look to see the day when the superfluous sunshine + will be utilized; as, for instance, that which has burned up my celery + this year will be converted into a force to work the garden. + </p> + <p> + 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 a battle-field, if one may look upon it so! The corn has + lost its ammunition, and stacked arms in a slovenly, militia sort of + style. The ground vines are torn, trampled, and withered; and the + ungathered cucumbers, worthless melons, and golden squashes lie about like + the spent bombs and exploded shells of a battle-field. So the cannon-balls + lay on the sandy plain before Fort Fisher after the capture. So the great + grassy meadow at Munich, any morning during the October Fest, is strewn + with empty beermugs. History constantly repeats itself. There is a large + crop of moral reflections in my garden, which anybody is at liberty to + gather who passes this way. + </p> + <p> + I have tried to get in anything that offered temptation to sin. There + would be no thieves if there was nothing to steal; and I suppose, in the + thieves' catechism, the provider is as bad as the thief; and, probably, I + am to blame for leaving out a few winter pears, which some predatory boy + carried off on Sunday. 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 chances are, that he would have escaped + away with his pockets full, and jibed at me from a safe distance. And, if + I had got my hands on him, I should have been still more embarrassed. If I + had flogged him, he would have got over it a good deal sooner than I + should. That sort of boy does not mind castigation any more than he does + tearing his trousers in the briers. If I had treated him with kindness, + and conciliated him with grapes, showing him the enormity of his offense, + I suppose he would have come the next night, and taken the remainder of + the grapes. The truth is, that the public morality is lax on the subject + of fruit. If anybody puts arsenic or gunpowder into his watermelons, he is + universally denounced as a stingy old murderer by the community. A great + many people regard growing fruit as lawful prey, who would not think of + breaking into your cellar to take it. I found a man once in my + raspberry-bushes, early in the season, when we were waiting for a dishful + to ripen. Upon inquiring what he was about, he said he was only eating + some; and the operation seemed to be so natural and simple, that I + disliked to disturb him. And I am not very sure that one has a right to + the whole of an abundant crop of fruit until he has gathered it. At least, + in a city garden, one might as well conform his theory to the practice of + the community. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0187}.jpg" alt="{0187}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0187}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + As for children (and it sometimes looks as if the chief products of my + garden were small boys and hens), it is admitted that they are barbarians. + There is no exception among them to this condition of barbarism. This is + not to say that they are not attractive; for they have the virtues as well + as the vices of a primitive people. It is held by some naturalists that + the child is only a zoophyte, with a stomach, and feelers radiating from + it in search of something to fill it. It is true that a child is always + hungry all over: but he is also curious all over; and his curiosity is + excited about as early as his hunger. He immediately begins to put out his + moral feelers into the unknown and the infinite to discover what sort of + an existence this is into 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 dinner. He is credulous and superstitious, and open to + all wonder. In this, he is exactly like the savage races. Both gorge + themselves on the marvelous; and all the unknown is marvelous to them. I + know the general impression is that children must be governed through + their stomachs. I think they can be controlled quite as well through their + curiosity; that being the more craving and imperious of the two. I have + seen children follow about a person who told them stories, and interested + them with his charming talk, as greedily as if his pockets had been full + of bon-bons. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps this fact has no practical relation to gardening; but it occurs to + me that, if I should paper the outside of my high board fence with the + leaves of “The Arabian Nights,” it would afford me a good deal of + protection,—more, in fact, than spikes in the top, which tear + trousers and encourage profanity, but do not save much fruit. A spiked + fence is a challenge to any boy of spirit. But if the fence were papered + with fairy-tales, would he not stop to read them until it was too late for + him to climb into the garden? I don't know. Human nature is vicious. The + boy might regard the picture of the garden of the Hesperides only as an + advertisement of what was over the fence. I begin to find that the problem + of raising fruit is nothing to that of getting it after it has matured. So + long as the law, just in many respects, is in force against shooting birds + and small boys, the gardener may sow in tears and reap in vain. + </p> + <p> + The power of a boy is, to me, something fearful. Consider what he can do. + You buy and set out a choice pear-tree; you enrich the earth for it; you + train and trim it, and vanquish the borer, and watch its slow growth. At + length it rewards your care by producing two or three pears, which you cut + up and divide in the family, declaring the flavor of the bit you eat to be + something extraordinary. The next year, the little tree blossoms full, and + sets well; and in the autumn has on its slender, drooping limbs half a + bushel of fruit, daily growing more delicious in the sun. You show it to + your friends, reading to them the French name, which you can never + remember, on the label; and you take an honest pride in the successful + fruit 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 into safe obscurity. + In five minutes the 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 is sacred or safe. + </p> + <p> + And it is not of much consequence. The boy goes on his way,—to + Congress, or to State Prison: in either place he will be accused of + stealing, perhaps wrongfully. You learn, in time, that it is better to + have had pears and lost them than not to have had pears at all. You come + to know that the least (and rarest) part of the pleasure of raising fruit + is the vulgar eating it. You recall your delight in conversing with the + nurseryman, and looking at his illustrated catalogues, where all the pears + are drawn perfect in form, and of extra size, and at that exact moment + between ripeness and decay which it is so impossible to hit in practice. + Fruit cannot be raised on this earth to taste as 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 the healthy growing tree with your + pruning-knife many a sunny morning! That is happiness. Then, if you know + it, you are drinking the very wine of life; and when the sweet juices of + the earth mount the limbs, and flow down 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 processes of Nature. Enter + at this moment boy the destroyer, whose office is that of preserver as + well; for, though he removes the fruit from your sight, it remains in your + memory immortally ripe and desirable. The gardener needs all these + consolations of a high philosophy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EIGHTEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have + turned out so differently! If Ravaillac had not been imprisoned for debt, + he would not have stabbed Henry of Navarre. If William of Orange had + escaped assassination by Philip's emissaries; if France had followed the + French Calvin, and embraced Protestant Calvinism, as it came very near + doing towards the end of the sixteenth century; if the Continental + ammunition had not given out at Bunker's Hill; if Blucher had not “come + up” at Waterloo,—the lesson is, that things do not come up unless + they are planted. When you go behind the historical scenery, you find + there is a rope and pulley to effect every transformation which has + astonished you. It was the rascality of a minister and a contractor 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 woman than by the hate of man. It is only because we are ill + informed that anything surprises us; and we are disappointed because we + expect that for which we have not provided. + </p> + <p> + I had too vague expectations of what my garden would do of itself. A + garden ought to produce one everything,—just as a business ought to + support a man, and a house ought to keep itself. We had a convention + lately to resolve that the house should keep itself; but it won't. There + has been a lively time in our garden this summer; but it seems to me there + is very little to show for it. It has been a terrible campaign; but where + is the indemnity? Where are all “sass” and Lorraine? It is true that we + have lived on the country; but we desire, besides, the fruits of the war. + There are no onions, for one thing. I am quite ashamed to take people into + my garden, and have them notice the absence of onions. It is very marked. + In onion is strength; and a garden without it lacks flavor. The onion in + its satin wrappings is among the most beautiful of vegetables; and it is + the only one that represents the essence of things. It can almost be said + to have a soul. You take off coat after coat, and the onion is still + there; and, when the last one is removed, who dare say that the onion + itself is destroyed, though you can weep over its departed spirit? If + there is any one thing on this fallen earth that the angels in heaven weep + over—more than another, it is the onion. + </p> + <p> + I know that there is supposed to be a prejudice against the onion; but I + think there is rather a cowardice in regard to it. I doubt not that all + men and women love the onion; but few confess their love. Affection for it + is concealed. Good New-Englanders are as shy of owning it as they are of + talking about religion. Some people have days on which they eat onions,—what + you might call “retreats,” or their “Thursdays.” The act is in the nature + of a religious ceremony, an Eleusinian mystery; not a breath of it must + get abroad. On that day they see no company; they deny the kiss of + greeting to the dearest friend; they retire within themselves, and hold + communion with one of the most pungent and penetrating manifestations of + the moral vegetable world. Happy is said to be the family which can eat + onions together. They are, for the time being, separate from the world, + and have a harmony of aspiration. There is a hint here for the reformers. + Let them become apostles of the onion; let them eat, and preach it to + their fellows, and circulate tracts of it in the form of seeds. In the + onion is the hope of universal brotherhood. If all men will eat onions at + all times, they will come into a universal sympathy. Look at Italy. I hope + I am not mistaken as to the cause of her unity. It was the Reds who + preached the gospel which made it possible. All the Reds of Europe, all + the sworn devotees of the mystic Mary Ann, eat of the common vegetable. + Their oaths are strong with it. It is the food, also, of the common people + of Italy. All the social atmosphere of that delicious land is laden with + it. Its odor is a practical democracy. In the churches all are alike: + there is one faith, one smell. The entrance of Victor Emanuel into Rome is + only the pompous proclamation of a unity which garlic had already + accomplished; and yet we, who boast of our democracy, eat onions in + secret. + </p> + <p> + I now see that I have left out many of the most moral elements. Neither + onions, parsnips, carrots, nor cabbages are here. I have never seen a + garden in the autumn before, without the uncouth cabbage in it; but my + garden gives the impression of a garden without a head. The cabbage is the + rose of Holland. I admire the force by which it compacts its crisp leaves + into a solid head. The secret of it would be priceless to the world. We + should see less expansive foreheads with nothing within. Even the largest + cabbages are not always the best. But I mention these things, not from any + sympathy I have with the vegetables named, but to show how hard it is to + go contrary to the expectations of society. Society expects every man to + have certain things in his garden. Not to raise cabbage is as if one had + no pew in church. Perhaps we shall come some day to free churches and free + gardens; when I can show my neighbor through my tired garden, at the end + of the season, when skies are overcast, and brown leaves are swirling + down, and not mind if he does raise his eyebrows when he observes, “Ah! I + see you have none of this, and of that.” At present we want the moral + courage to plant only what we need; to spend only what will bring us + peace, regardless of what is going on over the fence. We are half ruined + by conformity; but we should be wholly ruined without it; and I presume I + shall make a garden next year that will be as popular as possible. + </p> + <p> + And this brings me to what I see may be a crisis in life. I begin to feel + the temptation of experiment. Agriculture, horticulture, floriculture,—these + are vast fields, into which one may wander away, and never be seen more. + It seemed to me a very simple thing, this gardening; but it opens up + astonishingly. It is like the infinite possibilities in worsted-work. + Polly sometimes says to me, “I wish you would call at Bobbin's, and match + that skein of worsted for me, when you are in town.” Time was, I used to + accept such a commission with alacrity and self-confidence. I went to + Bobbin's, and asked one of his young men, with easy indifference, to give + me some of that. The young man, who is as handsome a young man as ever I + looked at, and who appears to own the shop, and whose suave + superciliousness would be worth everything to a cabinet minister who + wanted to repel applicants for place, says, “I have n't an ounce: I have + sent to Paris, and I expect it every day. I have a good deal of difficulty + in getting that shade in my assortment.” To think that he is in + communication with Paris, and perhaps with Persia! Respect for such a + being gives place to awe. I go to another shop, holding fast to my scarlet + clew. There I am shown a heap of stuff, with more colors and shades than I + had supposed existed in all the world. What a blaze of distraction! I have + been told to get as near the shade as I could; and so I compare and + contrast, till the whole thing seems to me about of one color. But I can + settle my mind on nothing. The affair assumes a high degree of importance. + I am satisfied with nothing but perfection. I don't know what may happen + if the shade is not matched. I go to another shop, and another, and + another. At last a pretty girl, who could make any customer believe that + green is blue, matches the shade in a minute. I buy five cents worth. That + was the order. Women are the most economical persons that ever were. I + have spent two hours in this five-cent business; but who shall say they + were wasted, when I take the stuff home, and Polly says it is a perfect + match, and looks so pleased, and holds it up with the work, at arm's + length, and turns her head one side, and then takes her needle, and works + it in? Working in, I can see, my own obligingness and amiability with + every stitch. Five cents is dirt cheap for such a pleasure. + </p> +<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/{0205}.jpg" alt="{0205}" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/{0205}.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5> + + <p> + The things I may do in my garden multiply on my vision. How fascinating + have the catalogues of the nurserymen become! Can I raise all those + beautiful varieties, each one of which is preferable to the other? Shall I + try all the kinds of grapes, and all the sorts of pears? I have already + fifteen varieties of strawberries (vines); and I have no idea that I have + hit the right one. Must I subscribe to all the magazines and weekly papers + which offer premiums of the best vines? Oh, that all the strawberries were + rolled into one, that I could inclose all its lusciousness in one bite! Oh + for the good old days when a strawberry was a strawberry, and there was no + perplexity about it! There are more berries now than churches; and no one + knows what to believe. I have 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 expectation. People grow pear-trees at + great expense of time and money, which never yield them more than four + pears to the tree. The fashions of ladies' bonnets are nothing to the + fashions of nurserymen. He who attempts to follow them has a business for + life; but his life may be short. If I enter upon this wide field of + horticultural experiment, I shall leave peace behind; and I may expect the + ground to open, and swallow me and all my fortune. May Heaven keep me to + the old roots and herbs of my forefathers! Perhaps in the world of modern + reforms this is not possible; but I intend now to cultivate only the + standard things, and learn to talk knowingly of the rest. Of course, one + must keep up a reputation. I have seen people greatly enjoy themselves, + and elevate themselves in their own esteem, in a wise and critical talk + about all the choice wines, while they were sipping a decoction, the + original cost of which bore no relation to the price of grapes. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NINETEENTH WEEK + </h2> + <p> + The closing scenes are not necessarily funereal. A garden should be got + ready for winter as well as for summer. When one goes into + winter-quarters, he wants everything neat and trim. Expecting high winds, + we bring everything into close reef. Some men there are who never shave + (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. I like a man who shaves (next to one who does n't shave) to + satisfy his own conscience, and not for display, and who dresses as neatly + at home as he does anywhere. Such a man will be likely to put his garden + in complete order before the snow comes, so that its last days shall not + present a scene of melancholy ruin and decay. + </p> + <p> + I confess that, after such an exhausting campaign, I felt a great + temptation to retire, and call it a drawn engagement. But better counsels + prevailed. I determined that the weeds should not sleep on the field of + battle. I routed them out, and leveled their works. I am master of the + situation. If I have made a desert, I at least have peace; but it is 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 this getting + ready for spring. The sun is 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, and the fertilizing, go on with + something of the hilarity of a wake, rather than the despondency of other + funerals. When the wind begins to come out of the northwest of set + purpose, and to sweep the ground with low and searching fierceness, very + different from the roistering, jolly bluster of early fall, I have put the + strawberries under their coverlet of leaves, pruned the grape-vines and + laid them under the soil, tied up the tender plants, given the fruit trees + a good, solid meal about the roots; and so I turn away, writing Resurgam + on the gatepost. And Calvin, aware that the summer is past and the harvest + is ended, and that a mouse in the kitchen is worth two birds gone south, + scampers away to the house with his tail in the air. + </p> + <p> + And yet I am not perfectly at rest in my mind. I know that this is only a + truce until the parties recover their exhausted energies. All winter long + the forces of chemistry will be mustering under ground, repairing the + losses, calling up the reserves, getting new strength from my + surface-fertilizing bounty, and making ready for the spring campaign. They + will open it before I am ready: while the snow is scarcely melted, and the + ground is not passable, they will begin to move on my works; and the fight + will commence. Yet how deceitfully it will open to the music of birds and + the soft enchantment of the spring mornings! I shall even be permitted to + win a few skirmishes: the secret forces will even wait for me to plant and + sow, and show my full hand, before they come on in heavy and determined + assault. There are already signs of an internecine fight with the + devil-grass, which has intrenched itself in a considerable portion of my + garden-patch. It contests the ground inch by inch; and digging it out is + very much such labor as eating a piece of choke-cherry pie with the stones + all in. It is work, too, that I know by experience I shall have to do + alone. Every man must eradicate his own devil-grass. The neighbors who + have leisure to help you in grape-picking time are all busy when + devil-grass is most aggressive. My neighbors' visits are well timed: it is + only their hens which have seasons for their own. + </p> + <p> + I am told that abundant and rank weeds are signs of a rich soil; but I + have noticed that a thin, poor soil grows little but weeds. I am inclined + to think that the substratum is the same, and that the only choice in this + world is what kind of weeds you will have. I am not much attracted by the + gaunt, flavorless mullein, and the wiry thistle of upland country + pastures, where the grass is always gray, as if the world were already + weary and sick of life. The awkward, uncouth wickedness of remote + country-places, where culture has died out after the first crop, is about + as disagreeable as the ranker and richer vice of city life, forced by + artificial heat and the juices of an overfed civilization. There is no + doubt that, on the whole, the rich soil is the best: the fruit of it has + body and flavor. To what affluence does a woman (to take an instance, + thank Heaven, which is common) grow, with favoring circumstances, under + the stimulus of the richest social and intellectual influences! I am aware + that there has been a good deal said in poetry about the fringed gentian + and the harebell of rocky districts and waysides, and I know that it is + possible for maidens to bloom in very slight soil into a wild-wood grace + and beauty; yet, the world through, they lack that wealth of charms, that + tropic affluence of both person and mind, which higher and more + stimulating culture brings,—the passion as well as the soul glowing + in the Cloth-of-Gold rose. Neither persons nor plants are ever fully + themselves until they are cultivated to their highest. I, for one, have no + fear that society will be too much enriched. The only question is about + keeping down the weeds; and I have learned by experience, that we need new + sorts of hoes, and more disposition to use them. + </p> + <p> + Moral Deduction.—The difference between soil and society is evident. + We bury decay in the earth; we plant in it the perishing; we feed it with + offensive refuse: but nothing grows out of it that is not clean; it gives + us back life and beauty for our rubbish. Society returns us what we give + it. + </p> + <p> + Pretending to reflect upon these things, but in reality watching the + blue-jays, who are pecking at the purple berries of the woodbine on the + south gable, I approach the house. Polly is picking up chestnuts on the + sward, regardless of the high wind which rattles them about her head and + upon the glass roof of her winter-garden. The garden, I see, is filled + with thrifty plants, which will make it always summer there. The callas + about the fountain will be in flower by Christmas: the plant appears to + keep that holiday in her secret heart all summer. I close the outer + windows as we go along, and congratulate myself that we are ready for + winter. For the winter-garden I have no responsibility: Polly has entire + charge of it. I am only required to keep it heated, and not too hot + either; to smoke it often for the death of the bugs; to water it once a + day; to move this and that into the sun and out of the sun pretty + constantly: but she does all the work. We never relinquish that theory. + </p> + <p> + As we pass around the house, I discover a boy in the ravine filling a bag + with chestnuts and hickorynuts. 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 glen, he hails me with, + </p> + <p> + “Mister, I say, can you tell me where I can find some walnuts?” + </p> + <p> + The coolness of this world grows upon me. It is time to go in and light a + wood-fire on the hearth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CALVIN + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTE.—The following brief Memoir of one of the characters in this + book + </h2> + <p> + is added by his friend, in the hope that the record of an exemplary fife + in an humble sphere may be of some service to the world. + </p> + <p> + HARTFORD, January, 1880. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CALVIN + </h2> + <h3> + A STUDY OF CHARACTER + </h3> + <p> + Calvin is dead. His life, long to him, but short for the rest of us, was + not marked by startling adventures, but his character was so uncommon and + his qualities were so worthy of imitation, that I have been asked by those + who personally knew him to set down my recollections of his career. + </p> + <p> + His origin and ancestry were shrouded in mystery; even his age was a + matter of pure conjecture. Although he was of the Maltese race, I have + reason to suppose that he was American by birth as he certainly was in + sympathy. Calvin was given to me eight years ago by Mrs. Stowe, but she + knew nothing of his age or origin. He walked into her house one day out of + the great unknown and became at once at home, as if he had been always a + friend of the family. He appeared to have artistic and literary tastes, + and it was as if he had inquired at the door if that was the residence of + the author of “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” and, upon being assured that it was, + bad decided to dwell there. This is, of course, fanciful, for his + antecedents were wholly unknown, but in his time he could hardly have been + in any household where he would not have heard “Uncle Tom's Cabin” talked + about. When he came to Mrs. Stowe, he was as large as he ever was, and + apparently as old as he ever became. Yet there was in him no appearance of + age; he was in the happy maturity of all his powers, and you would rather + have said that in that maturity he had found the secret of perpetual + youth. And it was as difficult to believe that he would ever be aged as it + was to imagine that he had ever been in immature youth. There was in him a + mysterious perpetuity. + </p> + <p> + After some years, when Mrs. Stowe made her winter home in Florida, Calvin + came to live with us. From the first moment, he fell into the ways of the + house and assumed a recognized position in the family,—I say + recognized, because after he became known he was always inquired for by + visitors, and in the letters to the other members of the family he always + received a message. Although the least obtrusive of beings, his + individuality always made itself felt. + </p> + <p> + His personal appearance had much to do with this, for he was of royal + mould, and had an air of high breeding. He was large, but he had nothing + of the fat grossness of the celebrated Angora family; though powerful, he + was exquisitely proportioned, and as graceful in every movement as a young + leopard. When he stood up to open a door—he opened all the doors + with old-fashioned latches—he was portentously tall, and when + stretched on the rug before the fire he seemed too long for this world—as + indeed he was. His coat was the finest and softest I have ever seen, a + shade of quiet Maltese; and from his throat downward, underneath, to the + white tips of his feet, he wore the whitest and most delicate ermine; and + no person was ever more fastidiously neat. In his finely formed head you + saw something of his aristocratic character; the ears were small and + cleanly cut, there was a tinge of pink in the nostrils, his face was + handsome, and the expression of his countenance exceedingly intelligent—I + should call it even a sweet expression, if the term were not inconsistent + with his look of alertness and sagacity. + </p> + <p> + It is difficult to convey a just idea of his gayety in connection with his + dignity and gravity, which his name expressed. As we know nothing of his + family, of course it will be understood that Calvin was his Christian + name. He had times of relaxation into utter playfulness, delighting in a + ball of yarn, catching sportively at stray ribbons when his mistress was + at her toilet, and pursuing his own tail, with hilarity, for lack of + anything better. He could amuse himself by the hour, and he did not care + for children; perhaps something in his past was present to his memory. He + had absolutely no bad habits, and his disposition was perfect. I never saw + him exactly angry, though I have seen his tail grow to an enormous size + when a strange cat appeared upon his lawn. He disliked cats, evidently + regarding them as feline and treacherous, and he had no association with + them. Occasionally there would be heard a night concert in the shrubbery. + Calvin would ask to have the door opened, and then you would hear a rush + and a “pestzt,” and the concert would explode, and Calvin would quietly + come in and resume his seat on the hearth. There was no trace of anger in + his manner, but he would n't have any of that about the house. He had the + rare virtue of magnanimity. Although he had fixed notions about his own + rights, and extraordinary persistency in getting them, he never showed + temper at a repulse; he simply and firmly persisted till he had what he + wanted. His diet was one point; his idea was that of the scholars about + dictionaries,—to “get the best.” He knew as well as any one what was + in the house, and would refuse beef if turkey was to be had; and if there + were oysters, he would wait over the turkey to see if the oysters would + not be forthcoming. And yet he was not a gross gourmand; he would eat + bread if he saw me eating it, and thought he was not being imposed on. His + habits of feeding, also, were refined; he never used a knife, and he would + put up his hand and draw the fork down to his mouth as gracefully as a + grown person. Unless necessity compelled, he would not eat in the kitchen, + but insisted upon his meals in the dining-room, and would wait patiently, + unless a stranger were present; and then he was sure to importune the + visitor, hoping that the latter was ignorant of the rule of the house, and + would give him something. They used to say that he preferred as his + table-cloth on the floor a certain well-known church journal; but this was + said by an Episcopalian. So far as I know, he had no religious prejudices, + except that he did not like the association with Romanists. He tolerated + the servants, because they belonged to the house, and would sometimes + linger by the kitchen stove; but the moment visitors came in he arose, + opened the door, and marched into the drawing-room. Yet he enjoyed the + company of his equals, and never withdrew, no matter how many callers—whom + he recognized as of his society—might come into the drawing-room. + Calvin was fond of company, but he wanted to choose it; and I have no + doubt that his was an aristocratic fastidiousness rather than one of + faith. It is so with most people. + </p> + <p> + The intelligence of Calvin was something phenomenal, in his rank of life. + He established a method of communicating his wants, and even some of his + sentiments; and he could help himself in many things. There was a furnace + register in a retired room, where he used to go when he wished to be + alone, that he always opened when he desired more heat; but he never shut + it, any more than he shut the door after himself. He could do almost + everything but speak; and you would declare sometimes that you could see a + pathetic longing to do that in his intelligent face. I have no desire to + overdraw his qualities, but if there was one thing in him more noticeable + than another, it was his fondness for nature. He could content himself for + hours at a low window, looking into the ravine and at the great trees, + noting the smallest stir there; he delighted, above all things, to + accompany me walking about the garden, hearing the birds, getting the + smell of the fresh earth, and rejoicing in the sunshine. He followed me + and gamboled like a dog, rolling over on the turf and exhibiting his + delight in a hundred ways. If I worked, he sat and watched me, or looked + off over the bank, and kept his ear open to the twitter in the + cherry-trees. When it stormed, he was sure to sit at the window, keenly + watching the rain or the snow, glancing up and down at its falling; and a + winter tempest always delighted him. I think he was genuinely fond of + birds, but, so far as I know, he usually confined himself to one a day; he + never killed, as some sportsmen do, for the sake of killing, but only as + civilized people do,—from necessity. He was intimate with the + flying-squirrels who dwell in the chestnut-trees,—too intimate, for + almost every day in the summer he would bring in one, until he nearly + discouraged them. He was, indeed, a superb hunter, and would have been a + devastating one, if his bump of destructiveness had not been offset by a + bump of moderation. There was very little of the brutality of the lower + animals about him; I don't think he enjoyed rats for themselves, but he + knew his business, and for the first few months of his residence with us + he waged an awful campaign against the horde, and after that his simple + presence was sufficient to deter them from coming on the premises. Mice + amused him, but he usually considered them too small game to be taken + seriously; I have seen him play for an hour with a mouse, and then let him + go with a royal condescension. In this whole, matter of “getting a + living,” Calvin was a great contrast to the rapacity of the age in which + he lived. + </p> + <p> + I hesitate a little to speak of his capacity for friendship and the + affectionateness of his nature, for I know from his own reserve that he + would not care to have it much talked about. We understood each other + perfectly, but we never made any fuss about it; when I spoke his name and + snapped my fingers, he came to me; when I returned home at night, he was + pretty sure to be waiting for me near the gate, and would rise and saunter + along the walk, as if his being there were purely accidental,—so shy + was he commonly of showing feeling; and when I opened the door, he never + rushed in, like a cat, but loitered, and lounged, as if he had no + intention of going in, but would condescend to. And yet, the fact was, he + knew dinner was ready, and he was bound to be there. He kept the run of + dinner-time. It happened sometimes, during our absence in the summer, that + dinner would be early, and Calvin, walking about the grounds, missed it + and came in late. But he never made a mistake the second day. There was + one thing he never did,—he never rushed through an open doorway. He + never forgot his dignity. If he had asked to have the door opened, and was + eager to go out, he always went deliberately; I can see him now standing + on the sill, looking about at the sky as if he was thinking whether it + were worth while to take an umbrella, until he was near having his tail + shut in. + </p> + <p> + His friendship was rather constant than demonstrative. When we returned + from an absence of nearly two years, Calvin welcomed us with evident + pleasure, but showed his satisfaction rather by tranquil happiness than by + fuming about. He had the faculty of making us glad to get home. It was his + constancy that was so attractive. He liked companionship, but he wouldn't + be petted, or fussed over, or sit in any one's lap a moment; he always + extricated himself from such familiarity with dignity and with no show of + temper. If there was any petting to be done, however, he chose to do it. + Often he would sit looking at me, and then, moved by a delicate affection, + come and pull at my coat and sleeve until he could touch my face with his + nose, and then go away contented. He had a habit of coming to my study in + the morning, sitting quietly by my side or on the table for hours, + watching the pen run over the paper, occasionally swinging his tail round + for a blotter, and then going to sleep among the papers by the inkstand. + Or, more rarely, he would watch the writing from a perch on my shoulder. + Writing always interested him, and, until he understood it, he wanted to + hold the pen. + </p> + <p> + He always held himself in a kind of reserve with his friend, as if he had + said, “Let us respect our personality, and not make a 'mess' of + friendship.” He saw, with Emerson, the risk of degrading it to trivial + conveniency. “Why insist on rash personal relations with your friend?” + “Leave this touching and clawing.” Yet I would not give an unfair notion + of his aloofness, his fine sense of the sacredness of the me and the + not-me. And, at the risk of not being believed, I will relate an incident, + which was often repeated. Calvin had the practice of passing a portion of + the night in the contemplation of its beauties, and would come into our + chamber over the roof of the conservatory through the open window, summer + and winter, and go to sleep on the foot of my bed. He would do this always + exactly in this way; he never was content to stay in the chamber if we + compelled him to go upstairs and through the door. He had the obstinacy of + General Grant. But this is by the way. In the morning, he performed his + toilet and went down to breakfast with the rest of the family. Now, when + the mistress was absent from home, and at no other time, Calvin would come + in the morning, when the bell rang, to the head of the bed, put up his + feet and look into my face, follow me about when I rose, “assist” at the + dressing, and in many purring ways show his fondness, as if he had plainly + said, “I know that she has gone away, but I am here.” Such was Calvin in + rare moments. + </p> + <p> + He had his limitations. Whatever passion he had for nature, he had no + conception of art. There was sent to him once a fine and very expressive + cat's head in bronze, by Fremiet. I placed it on the floor. He regarded it + intently, approached it cautiously and crouchingly, touched it with his + nose, perceived the fraud, turned away abruptly, and never would notice it + afterward. On the whole, his life was not only a successful one, but a + happy one. He never had but one fear, so far as I know: he had a mortal + and a reasonable terror of plumbers. He would never stay in the house when + they were here. No coaxing could quiet him. Of course he did n't share our + fear about their charges, but he must have had some dreadful experience + with them in that portion of his life which is unknown to us. A plumber + was to him the devil, and I have no doubt that, in his scheme, plumbers + were foreordained to do him mischief. + </p> + <p> + In speaking of his worth, it has never occurred to me to estimate Calvin + by the worldly standard. I know that it is customary now, when any one + dies, to ask how much he was worth, and that no obituary in the newspapers + is considered complete without such an estimate. The plumbers in our house + were one day overheard to say that, “They say that she says that he says + that he wouldn't take a hundred dollars for him.” It is unnecessary to say + that I never made such a remark, and that, so far as Calvin was concerned, + there was no purchase in money. + </p> + <p> + As I look back upon it, Calvin's life seems to me a fortunate one, for it + was natural and unforced. He ate when he was hungry, slept when he was + sleepy, and enjoyed existence to the very tips of his toes and the end of + his expressive and slow-moving tail. He delighted to roam about the + garden, and stroll among the trees, and to lie on the green grass and + luxuriate in all the sweet influences of summer. You could never accuse + him of idleness, and yet he knew the secret of repose. The poet who wrote + so prettily of him that his little life was rounded with a sleep, + understated his felicity; it was rounded with a good many. His conscience + never seemed to interfere with his slumbers. In fact, he had good habits + and a contented mind. I can see him now walk in at the study door, sit + down by my chair, bring his tail artistically about his feet, and look up + at me with unspeakable happiness in his handsome face. I often thought + that he felt the dumb limitation which denied him the power of language. + But since he was denied speech, he scorned the inarticulate mouthings of + the lower animals. The vulgar mewing and yowling of the cat species was + beneath him; he sometimes uttered a sort of articulate and well-bred + ejaculation, when he wished to call attention to something that he + considered remarkable, or to some want of his, but he never went whining + about. He would sit for hours at a closed window, when he desired to + enter, without a murmur, and when it was opened, he never admitted that he + had been impatient by “bolting” in. Though speech he had not, and the + unpleasant kind of utterance given to his race he would not use, he had a + mighty power of purr to express his measureless content with congenial + society. There was in him a musical organ with stops of varied power and + expression, upon which I have no doubt he could have performed Scarlatti's + celebrated cat's-fugue. + </p> + <p> + Whether Calvin died of old age, or was carried off by one of the diseases + incident to youth, it is impossible to say; for his departure was as quiet + as his advent was mysterious. I only know that he appeared to us in this + world in his perfect stature and beauty, and that after a time, like + Lohengrin, he withdrew. In his illness there was nothing more to be + regretted than in all his blameless life. I suppose there never was an + illness that had more of dignity, and sweetness and resignation in it. It + came on gradually, in a kind of listlessness and want of appetite. An + alarming symptom was his preference for the warmth of a furnace-register + to the lively sparkle of the open woodfire. Whatever pain he suffered, he + bore it in silence, and seemed only anxious not to obtrude his malady. We + tempted him with the delicacies of the season, but it soon became + impossible for him to eat, and for two weeks he ate or drank scarcely + anything. Sometimes he made an effort to take something, but it was + evident that he made the effort to please us. The neighbors—and I am + convinced that the advice of neighbors is never good for anything—suggested + catnip. He would n't even smell it. We had the attendance of an amateur + practitioner of medicine, whose real office was the cure of souls, but + nothing touched his case. He took what was offered, but it was with the + air of one to whom the time for pellets was passed. He sat or lay day + after day almost motionless, never once making a display of those vulgar + convulsions or contortions of pain which are so disagreeable to society. + His favorite place was on the brightest spot of a Smyrna rug by the + conservatory, where the sunlight fell and he could hear the fountain play. + If we went to him and exhibited our interest in his condition, he always + purred in recognition of our sympathy. And when I spoke his name, he + looked up with an expression that said, “I understand it, old fellow, but + it's no use.” He was to all who came to visit him a model of calmness and + patience in affliction. + </p> + <p> + I was absent from home at the last, but heard by daily postal-card of his + failing condition; and never again saw him alive. One sunny morning, he + rose from his rug, went into the conservatory (he was very thin then), + walked around it deliberately, looking at all the plants he knew, and then + went to the bay-window in the dining-room, and stood a long time looking + out upon the little field, now brown and sere, and toward the garden, + where perhaps the happiest hours of his life had been spent. It was a last + look. He turned and walked away, laid himself down upon the bright spot in + the rug, and quietly died. + </p> + <p> + It is not too much to say that a little shock went through the + neighborhood when it was known that Calvin was dead, so marked was his + individuality; and his friends, one after another, came in to see him. + There was no sentimental nonsense about his obsequies; it was felt that + any parade would have been distasteful to him. John, who acted as + undertaker, prepared a candle-box for him and I believe assumed a + professional decorum; but there may have been the usual levity underneath, + for I heard that he remarked in the kitchen that it was the “driest wake + he ever attended.” Everybody, however, felt a fondness for Calvin, and + regarded him with a certain respect. Between him and Bertha there existed + a great friendship, and she apprehended his nature; she used to say that + sometimes she was afraid of him, he looked at her so intelligently; she + was never certain that he was what he appeared to be. + </p> + <p> + When I returned, they had laid Calvin on a table in an upper chamber by an + open window. It was February. He reposed in a candle-box, lined about the + edge with evergreen, and at his head stood a little wine-glass with + flowers. He lay with his head tucked down in his arms,—a favorite + position of his before the fire,—as if asleep in the comfort of his + soft and exquisite fur. It was the involuntary exclamation of those who + saw him, “How natural he looks!” As for myself, I said nothing. John + buried him under the twin hawthorn-trees,—one white and the other + pink,—in a spot where Calvin was fond of lying and listening to the + hum of summer insects and the twitter of birds. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps I have failed to make appear the individuality of character that + was so evident to those who knew him. At any rate, I have set down nothing + concerning him, but the literal truth. He was always a mystery. I did not + know whence he came; I do not know whither he has gone. I would not weave + one spray of falsehood in the wreath I lay upon his grave. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Summer in a Garden and Calvin A Study +Of Character, by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUMMER IN A GARDEN *** + +***** This file should be named 3135-h.htm or 3135-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/3135/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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