70 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



if&quot; The president stopped me ab 

 ruptly, and said it was unnecessary to 

 repeat that remark : he thought he had 

 heard it before. Indeed, he deeply re 

 gretted that he had ever made it. 

 Sometimes, he said, after hearing it in 

 speeches, and coming across it in resolu 

 tions, and reading it in newspapers, and 

 having it dropped jocularly by facetious 

 politicians, who were boring him for an 

 office, about twenty-five times a day, say 

 for a month, it would get to running 

 through his head, like the &quot; shoo-fly &quot; 

 song which B tl r sings in the House, 

 until it did seem as if he should go dis 

 tracted. He said, no man could stand 

 that kind of sentence hammering on his 

 brain for years. 



The president was so much pleased 

 with my management of the garden, 

 that he offered me (at least, I so under 

 stood him) the position of head gardener 



