VI.] CULTIVATION. 



that the digging was put off^ from time to time^ 

 in order to get a cool day, until it could be put 

 off no longer. There were five of us, and every 

 one seemed to have still less relish for the job 

 than every other. At last the job fell to the lot 

 of me and a young Frenchman, who had come 

 from St. Helena, and had gone over to Ame- 

 rica in the same ship with us. There were but 

 five rods of ground, but we drove off the job till 

 after breakfast. Finally, at it we went. As it 

 happened, we chose pretty nearly the hottest day 

 in the year. However, 1 was resolved to do my 

 part ; and he, from that feeling of politeness for 

 which his nation is so famed, could not think of 

 going in while Monsieur Cobbe remained broil- 

 ing in the sun. In short, we finished the job; 

 we dug all the ground deep, and we hilled up the 

 corn besides. I was very far from having what 

 may be called a dry shirt, and neither of us had 

 either stockings or neckcloths of any kind ; but 

 his shirt was the wettest I ever saw upon a hu- 

 man body; just as wet as if it had been taken out 

 of water, and immediately put upon his back. I 

 thought to myself, and I told one of my sons in 

 the evening, that I had put the Tullian system 

 to a very severe test that day ; for, you will ob- 

 serve, we dug close round all the hills, leaving no 

 part of the ground unmoved, except the little 

 circles on which the plants were actually stand- 



