clear evidence that the whole collection was quite
unconscious of any change of place. The first rain closed up all
cavities around them, thus effectually repairing damages, and their
growth having experienced no check, many of them threw out new runners,
as if thinking that I wanted them.

It was not an unfeminine occupation, this setting out a strawberry-bed.
Neither did I consider it hard work. We could have done it ourselves, if
we could have spared the time. So any family of girls can accomplish the
same feat, or even a much greater one, when the masculine portion of the
labor, putting the ground in order, has been performed for them. I know
it soils one's hands to set out plants in the wet ground; but if one
could make choice of the kind of dirt she is to handle, I am sure that
this sort is preferable to that set free in washing a pile of greasy
dishes, or in standing a whole day over a wash-tub. These being
established feminine employments, no one thinks of objecting to them; in
fact, the sex seems born to them. But strawberry-planting by a young
girl like me is a novelty that some may think requires an apology. Yet
so far no one had seemed to consider any apology necessary in my case,
except our neighbors, the Tetchys.

Long before we had taken up half the plants required for the new bed, I
discovered that there were three or four times as many as we needed. My
reading had taught me that one of the mistakes of strawberry-growing was
that of crowding too many on the ground. The effect would be to make it
impossible to get at the weeds and grass with a hoe. A bed in this
condition could not be kept clean. In the end, the interlopers would
take complete possession and smother out the strawberries, compelling
the owner to plough all in together and start with a new planting. I was
puzzled to know what was the best course to adopt. I thought at one time
of hoeing up the greater portion of the multitude of plants we had so
carefully propagated, treating them as so many weeds, so as to be sure
of having a fair chance at the remainder. But they were all so vigorous
and healthy that I could not bring my mind to have such extensive waste
committed. Fred objected to it most strenuously. He said it was
impossible for us to have too much of a good thing, and, as usual came
to the rescue with his arithmetic. He made it out that we had so many
thousand fine plants that I wanted grubbed up. Then he showed that
these, if allow