A GKEATRlINNEK. 267 



the whole, there was a remarkable change. It was 

 at this point that I bethought me of an omission from 

 my flower garden which was as surprising as it was 

 inexcusable ; hitherto I had neglected doing justice 

 to the gourd tribe. 



I am great on gourds ; they are my specialty. I 

 will undertake to grow them against the world, and 

 will meet Jonah in a fair field, and no miracles, any 

 time ; in fact, I am a perfect Jonah on gourds. In 

 early youth, when my gardening was confined to a 

 city yard, my gourds were the first, and fattest, and 

 yellowest to be seen ; and, from that remote period 

 to the time of which I speak, I had always felt an 

 affection for the beautiful fruit, and wondered why 

 Nature did not put more in it. Of course there 

 must be gourds in my garden, in spite of their being 

 a useless production and very hollow Weeville made 

 a joke about their beating other fruit all hollow 

 and, except to make fragile water-dippers (which, by 

 the way, no one ever makes of them), quite worth 

 less; so I not only planted the seeds in the open 

 garden, but forced some in the hot-beds. 



My special favorites were three seeds of an almost 

 unknown variety, called Hercules Club, upon the past 

 history and future prospects of which I could get 

 little information. I planted these little germs of 



