in. 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 -----": b