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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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + +HENRY WARD BEECHER. + + + + + +BY WAY OF DEDICATION + +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. + +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. + +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. + +NOOK FARM, HARTFORD, October, 1870 + +C. D. W. + + + + + +PRELIMINARY + + +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: + +"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.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +FIRST WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Observation.--Woman always did, from the first, make a muss in a +garden. + +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. + + + + +SECOND WEEK + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + + + + +THIRD WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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." + + + + +FOURTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +FIFTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +SIXTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + + + + +SEVENTH WEEK + +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 arch- +angel; 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. + +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. + +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. + +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.) + +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. + +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. + +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." + + + + + +EIGHTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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'?" + +It was a very clever bon-mot; but I changed the subject. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +NINTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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 conver- +sation, 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +TENTH WEEK + +I think I have discovered the way to keep peas from the birds. I +tried the scarecrow 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +"James, I suppose." + +"Well, yes, perhaps James did plant them, to a certain extent. But +who hoed them?" + +"We did." + +"We did!" I said, in the most sarcastic manner. + +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." + +Observation.--In this sort of family discussion, "I will say no +more" is the most effective thing you can close up with. + +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. + + + + +ELEVENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + + + + +TWELFTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + + + + +THIRTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 taste- +ful 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. + +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,-- + + "The blessed damozel leaned out + From the gold bar of heaven," + +and reconnoitered from behind the blinds. + + "The wonder was not yet quite gone + From that still look of hers," + +when an armed man and a legged dog appeared in the opening. I was +vigilantly watching him. + + . . . . "And now + She spoke through the still weather." + +"Are you afraid to speak to him?" asked Polly. + +Not exactly, + + . . . ."she spoke as when + The stars sang in their spheres. + +"Stung by this inquiry, I leaned out of the window till + + "The bar I leaned on (was) warm," + +and cried,-- + +"Halloo, there! What are you doing?" + +"Look out he don't shoot you," called out Polly from the other +window, suddenly going on another tack. + +I explained that a sportsman would not be likely to shoot a gentleman +in his own house, with bird-shot, so long as quails were to be had. + +"You have no business here: what are you after?" I repeated. + +"Looking for a lost hen," said the man as he strode away. + +The reply was so satisfactory and conclusive that I shut the blinds +and went to bed. + +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. + +"You can't do it: there ain't no notice up about trespassing." + +This view of the common law impressed me; and I said, + +"But these are private grounds." + +"Private h---!" was all his response. + +You can't argue much with a man who has a gun in his hands, when you +have none. Besides, it might be a needle-gun, for aught I knew. I +gave it up, and we separated. + +There is this disadvantage about having a game preserve attached to +your garden: it makes life too lively. + + + + +FOURTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"If I could n't hold an apron better than that!" + +But the sentence is not finished: it is useless to finish that sort +of a sentence in this delicious weather. Besides, conversation 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. + +"This is a rotation of crops, is n't it?" + +"Yes: I have rotated the gone-to-seed lettuce off, and expect to +rotate the turnips in; it is a political fashion." + +"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?" + +"No, I thank you." (I wonder what all this is about?) + +"Don't you think we could sell some strawberries next year?" + +"By all means, sell anything. We shall no doubt get rich out of this +acre." + +"Don't be foolish." + +And now! + +"Don't you think it would be nice to have a?".... + +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?" + +"Oh, yes! And where is the money to come from?" + +"I thought we had agreed to sell the strawberries." + +"Certainly. But I think we would make more money if we sold the +plants now." + +"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. + +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. + + + + +FIFTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +"What's that?" we asked with undisguised curiosity. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +SIXTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + +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 + + +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 + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + + +SEVENTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +EIGHTEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +NINETEENTH WEEK + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + +"Mister, I say, can you tell me where I can find some walnuts?" + +The coolness of this world grows upon me. It is time to go in and +light a wood-fire on the hearth. + + + + + + +CALVIN + + + + +NOTE.--The following brief Memoir of one of the characters in +this book 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. + + HARTFORD, January, 1880. + + + + +CALVIN + +A STUDY OF CHARACTER + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Summer in a Garden & Calvin +by Charles Dudley Warner + |