Year: 1878

ohiHO' uAo OAouICu GvC! why COulO
MT we have an apple-bee, and invite
every body to the picking? We would.
The next morning we found that the
bee had been held overnight without
invitations. Those dreadful little boys
of the district-school had not been in
the garden for nothing; they too had
learned that the pippins were ripe, and
there was not an apple left on the tree.


"We will have to get dog" said
Royal.


I We got dog When that dog had
scratched up the celery trenches for the
purpose of burying his bones there, had
rolled in the asparagus beds, and the
carrots, and over the elate-coming Gu
cumber vines till they were worthless;
had chased the calf into the corn Just |
as it was, ,ripening, till not one ear was
left standing on another; had pulled
down 2 dozen sheep, and brought home
as many dead young turkeys from the
neighbOrs', for all Of which we had to
pay; had sensibly added to the butch
er's bill had bayed the moon till sleep
forsook the place; had frightened the
baby into fits, and had given the rest of
US a hydrophobic horror-we began
to think him as doubtful an
experiment as the garden. He was
fastened upon us, but celery, asparagus,
carrots, and corn had fled. However,
that corn, as we began to look forward
to it, had developed hideous fungus,
so that nearly every ear was as big as
ten. and that was to be subtracted from
Bruno's debtor account. "Weli," I
said, I" at any rate there are going to be
millions of tomatoes; they are just red
dening, and we shall have a salad of
them by day after tomorrow. And
there will be quantities for chowchow
besides; and then, with ginger and
lemon, you know, they make the most
luscious Oriental sweetmeat. And You
really can't tell preserved melon from
citron; so Bruno and the calf did some
good in trampling down the corn, for
it has let the sun in on the melons,"


"What melons?' said Royal.


Why, the water. melons, and nut
megs, and aa;',,tr


s7Do you see any therep'' he asked.


Upon my word, not one. The dis
trict-school had levied on that melon
patch, and we might have perished with
thirst, for all the imps had cared.


81 don't care!" / exclaimed, after
the first of the dismay. 81 hate mel
ons, any way; they always taste like a
raw squash, and they are full of cholera
morbus; while tomato


Alas! what was that clucking under
the tomato plants? I bent to see the
cause, and beheld the whole harem of
Neighbor Weldon's black Cochin fowl
comfortably disposed there, and not a
tomato of them all that those bills of
theirs had not broken and emptied. It
was no use to shoe those hens out of the
garden and beyond the farthest bounds
of Craigie; they seemed to descend out
of the air or come up out of the ground;
and when you assured yourself that they
were utterly routed, there they were
again pecking away at the tomatoes,
and there they staid as long as single
love-apple did, enjoying the first-fruits
of the garden, and leaving neither
sweetmeats nor chowchow to us for
second fruits.


| pledge you my word that by this
time Mr.. Royal had hedged, pretending
that the garden was none Of his, but a
little indulgence allowed me, and that
he took magnanimons sort of interest
in it for my sake, and gave himself
some mild merriment over it at my ex-
pense. OF course at that was put to
my trumps, and determined to have
something from that garden. We had
the beans, to be sure; we had them ev-
cry day, and out of the necessity of my
enthusiasms was compelled nearly to
live upon them. They certainly were
the cest beans ever tasted. But the
only other thing left me now on which
there was any possibility to make or
Keep reputation for my garden was q
certain squash that had early manifest
ed an intention of distinguishing itself.
There was to be county fair and agri-
cultural display, and if | could but take
the prize for my squash, would Royal,
would any one, dare laugh at my gar
den? Now it is not universally known
that near the stem of every squash is q
little proboscis which it puts down and
roots round with in the earth, and
through which it sucks up further
nourishment than that given by
the roots "Further nourish-
ment it shall have,'' said I. And
secretly broughta great fat pan ofmilk
every day, and set it down beneath the
vine, lifting the stem carefully, and
plunging that little probocis into the
contents, and you would have laughed
to see it suck up the whole Of that milk,
like live creature, and fairly grow be


meath your eyes. How it did grow


How it stretched its great yellow side'


as it lay warm. in the sun, like chile


waking from sleep! Ibegan to get font


of it, and to experience certain graft


tude toward it as the redeemer Of tn
gardens good name. What q monste