86 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 







own vegetables ; when every thing on 

 the table is the product of my own la 

 bor, except the clams, which I have not 

 been able to raise yet, and the chickens, 

 which have withdrawn from the garden 

 just when they were most attractive. It 

 is strange what a taste you suddenly have 

 for things you never liked before. The 

 squash has always been to me a dish of 

 contempt; but I eat it now as if it were 

 my best friend. I never cared for the 

 beet or the bean ; but I fancy now that 

 I could eat them all, tops and all, so 

 completely have they been transformed 

 by the soil in which they grew. I think 

 the squash is less squashy, and the beet 

 has a deeper hue of rose, for my care of 

 them. 



I had begun to nurse a good deal of 

 pride in presiding over a table whereon 

 was the fruit of my honest industry. 

 But woman ! John Stuart Mill is right 



