Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1863-10-29

1tem-a soilcd dress hem-irrepara
bly, soiled. Net result-vexation ant
tears
| devoted the rest Of the day to re
covering my equanimity, and at nigh
was able to welcome Pietro with
smile.
Mr.. Eliakim was coming the mex
morning, and We agreed that | woult
show him what was to be done, al
Pietro was obliged to 60 early to tn,
city. Accordingly | led the way to tn,
spot of land set apart for a garden
and said, assuming the air of one wht
understands such things:
This is to be planted with swee
corn, peas, beets, turnips, tomatoes
cabbages, and other things of tha
kind. l will send the seeds out t,
you"
"ho you mean to say that you wan
this ere planted with garden stuff?
demanded Mr.. Eliakim.
Of course. Why not ?"
Why, it's only broke-up ground =
What else ought it to be ?"
thought, but resolved not to expose
my ignorance, | held my peace.
cit wants to be plowed and cross.
plowed and narrowed, before you can
do any thing with it," continued he.
Certainly" / FASTENED to say. "Do
whatever you think necessary"
Then | shall have to go home again
after my horse"
He went and returned with the ami
NAL, and all day long walked across
the land in various directions. Ii
seemed an inconceivable period be-
fore that ground was planted.
should have thought the whole sur.
face of the earth might have been laid
down to grass in a less time. Then
the seeds were long time coming up.
And in this respect there was no
difference between the flowers and the
vegetables. had my flower garden
nicely pnlverized and raked, and SOW.
ed my seed in rows, circles, parallelo.
grams, and hcxagons. watched for
them every day, but they did not ap-
pear. Finally some came up and
some didn't. The weeds, however,
grew finely. 1t was as ifthe whole en-
ergies of the soil were concentrated
in with grass and white clover. To-
wards midsummer Pietro and | COM
pared notes.
my vegetables don't seem to grow
very WELL" he said.
my flowers don't seem to grow
very well, either"
"Mr. Brown says the beets are too
thick, but the carrots and parsnips
are thin enough to make it up"
My china-asters came up in
lunches, and if l attempt to pull one
up, half a dozen come up with it,"
1.-The peas don't fill out any, and
the bugs are eating up all the squash,
es and cucumbers. The worms have
cut off all the early potatoes, too"
said Pietro, recurring to the utilities.
My sweet peas didn't come up,
and thought perhaps | had planted
them too deep, and so | took them all
up and found they were sprouted.
Then | planted them not more than
half so deep as before, but | haven't
seen them since. Mr.. Ehakim said
must keep the soil wet, and | drench-
ed it every day for a week, and then
| was afraid | was keeping it too wet,
and let it be dry. have two mas
turtions, three morning-glorics, and a
whole bed of lark spur. None OF
them have blossomed."
"l'll tell you what l think, Susie.
We don't know how to manage a farm,
and begin to think it will take some
time to learn said Pietro, by way of
consolation.
! sighed. "The children have
grown fat, and Mary hasn't been i'll
this SUMNER" replied.
"Oh, yes, it has its consultations.
And you forget the cow" laughed Pie
tro.
| had insisted that cow was de-
sidcratum. So Pietro asked Mr.. Ella
kim if he knew of anybody who had a
cow to sell. Whereupon Mr.. EIiakim
replied he didn't know but he could
spare one of his :" to 'commcrdate u.s."
The price Of the accommodation was
fifty dollars, but Mr.. Eliakim praised
the animal to such an extent, and SO
clearly showed us that she was the
embodiment of all bovine excellence,
that we felt as though we were quite
selfish in wishing him to part with
such q treasure. The bargain was
made, and Madam Mooley was driven
over to us. She was a beautiful crea
ture, and | was determined to make
a pet of her. There was, to be sure
something unusual in her way of NOV.
ing her head and lifting her feet, bu,
l reflected that first impressions were
often erroneous, and | would not allow
myself to be prejudiced. The first
night Mary brought a pail full of rich
yellow foaming milk. The next nigh,
she brought in pail all battered ant
bruised, but not the milk. Mooley
had lifted her foot just as the pail wa:
full, and dextcrously upset it. Sh,
was accustomed to practice this ma
neuyer, we found, and there was al
ways an interesting uncertaint,
whether Mary would bring in an,
milk or not. The negative side of th'
question oftenest carried the day. Blu
this was only slight inequality o
temper, which we could readily have
excused If it had not been for her uu
conqucrable unwillingness to submit
to the necessary restraints. She was
in a chronic state of uneasiness. Nc
fence could hold her, and no latch was
so intricate that she could not unrave
its mysteries. The animal kept us il
a perpetual worry. The cow here, and
the cow there, was the constant cry
till l got into such a nervous state thai
life became intolerable. To add tt
our felicity, Pietro had insisted o,
having a pig--a hideous little blacl
and white pig. ..
Get pig by all means,' sale
Mr.. Smith. He will live on the sou
milk and what you would otherwis,
throw away, aud then in the fall yol
would have some pork ready made"