The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-09-02

double house, four acres beautifully
shaded, vegetable garden not to be
beaten, and soil of superior quality.
The place is still in my possession, but
before / would go and live on it again,
I'd give it away yes, Aleek, I'd see it
sunk in the middle of the Dead Sea.
But am getting little ahead of my
story. For two or three months, mat
ters and things went on very well, be-
cause l had something to attend to in
making a few improvements about the
house and in furnishing a number of
the doors with locks of.my own invcn-
ton but as the whole premises were
in excellent repair when 1 bought them,
l soon came to point where there
was nothing to look after but the Gull
tivation of the garden. / was not long,
though, in making the discovery that
| had no genius nor taste either for
digging around roots, or pulling up
weeds. and so, as wife didn't wish the
garden to run to waste 7 employed
regular English gardener to carry the
thing handsomely through Well, L
didn't mind the expense he put me to
in the way of guano, new-fangled gar
dening tools, and patent watering APP
paratus for l had fully expected
to spend money, and thanks to our
previous economy we had the money
to spend but Aleck, it was really very
amusing to see what fruit and vegeta-
bles raised from our garden stood us
in. Making use of the little arithmetic
/ was master of, | recollect that l CT
phered up the cost of some of the
table filings, and the result was-cu-
cumbers, seventeen cents apiece :;
green peas, a dollar and three quar-
ters for a half peck curants. fifty
cents quart; raspberries thirty cents a
pint beets, fourteen cents each, and
everything else in proportion. All this
| cared nothing about, but somehow,
| felt out of my gearing in not having
the right kind Of employment Wife
did her best to coax me INTO gentle
manly ways had the old mechanical
Crime all thoroughly scrubbed out of
my hands fnger-nails cleaned out
and rounded-so us to make ii appear
that l had never done manual labor
Then we must get behind couple
of Morgan ponies which l had pur-
chased, and make fashionable calls in
the day time on those who had called
on us and wife wanted me to soften
down my voice and be particular about
my grammar and the subjects talked
on, but sometimes forgetting myself l
would revel in the proud memory of
the locks and keys | had handled in
happier days, and commence history
of my exploits in that line, when wife
would look as though she was going to
sink through the floor In fact she
wished to keep aperpetual lock on my
lips $50 far as our antecedents were
concerned with the key in her pocket
But l sighed for the shop, and time
hung heavily on my hands, SO that an
hour spent in stupid hstlessness about
the house seemed longer to me than
day did, when had orders ahead for
locks, and was driving hard to get
them finished at given time. My
youngest brother, who is college bred
man and lawyer, sent me, at my re-
quest, fine collection of books ON all
imaginable subjects, so that my library
outshone that of the parson, or indeed
any other man in the place, but found
| had no more taste to sit down and
read than l had for trimming currant
bushes Time was, after | had finish
ed hard days labor at the shop, when
an hour at books was a real solace, and
l also believed an hour of improve
ment. Then l enyied those whose
leisure allowed them to feast on books
perpetually ; but the mistake l made
was in failing to discriminate between
the mental habits and requirements of
the professed student, and those of the
working man.
In this wretched manner did time at
my country seat drag heavily along.
Visiting was a perfect bore, for not
feeling the slightest interest in such
masculine topics as corn, grubs and
manure, and caring less for the femi-
nine ones of dress and local gossip, /
didn't know what to talk about
Books set me to sleep, and not having
the society of my two boys, who were
off at boarding school, l became fully
satisfied that having nothing to do
was equal to having everything to
suffer-
My most delightful place of resort