MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 87 



I 



when he says that we do not know any 

 thing about women. Six thousand years 

 is as one day with them. I thought I 

 had something to do with those ve 

 getables. But when I saw Polly seated 

 at her side of the table, presiding 

 over the new and susceptible vegetables, 

 flanked by the squash and the beans, and 

 smiling upon the green corn and the new 

 potatoes, as cool as the cucumbers which 

 lay sliced in ice before her, and when 

 she began to dispense the fresh dishes, I 

 saw at once that the day of my destiny 

 was over. You would have thought 

 that she owned all the vegetables, and 

 had raised them all from their earliest 

 years. Such quiet, vegetable airs ! Such 

 gracious appropriation ! At length I 

 said, 



&quot; Polly, do you know who planted that 

 squash, or those squashes ? &quot; 



&quot; James, I suppose.&quot; 



