BY WAY OF DEDICATION. 9 



when death flew on the wings of a perfume. 

 One lady, whose entreaty that I should pause 

 had something of command in it, wrote that my 

 strictures on " pusley " had so inflamed her hus- 

 band's zeal, that, in her absence in the country, 

 he had rooted up all her beds of portulaca (a sort 

 of cousin of the fat weed), and utterly cast it out. 

 It is, however, to be expected, that retributive 

 justice would visit the innocent as well as the 

 guilty of an offending family. This is only an- 

 other proof of the wide sweep of moral forces. 

 I suppose that it is as necessary in the vegetable 

 world as it is elsewhere to avoid the appearance 

 of evil. 



In offering you the fruit of my garden, which 

 has been gathered from week to week, without 

 much reference to the progress of the crops or 

 the drought, I desire to acknowledge an influence 

 which has lent half the charm to my labor. If 

 I were in a court of justice, or injustice, under 



