MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 131 



was as ambitious as the others. After 

 having seen the declining letter of Mr. 

 Colfax, I did not suppose that this vine 

 would run any more, and intended to 

 root it out. But one can never say 

 what these politicians mean ; and I shall 

 let this variety grow until after the 

 next election, at least ; although I hear 

 that the fruit is small, and rather sour. 

 If there is any variety of strawberries 

 that really declines to run, and devotes 

 itself to a private life of fruit-bearing, I 

 should like to get it. I may mention 

 here, since we are on politics, that the 

 Doolittle raspberries had sprawled all 

 over the strawberry-beds : so true is it 

 that politics makes strange bed-fellows. 



But- another enemy had come into the 

 strawberries, which, after all that has 

 been said in these papers, I am almost 

 ashamed to mention. But does the 

 preacher in the pulpit, Sunday after 



