24 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



high this 1 8th of May, and apparently having no 

 fear of a frost. I was hoeing it this morning for 

 the first time, it is not well usually to hoe corn 

 until about the iSth of May, when Polly came 

 out to look at the Lima beans. She seemed to 

 think the poles had come up beautifully. I 

 thought they did look well : they are a fine 

 set of poles, large and well grown, and stand 

 straight. They were inexpensive too. The 

 cheapness came about from my cutting them on 

 another man's land, and he did not know it. I 

 have not examined this transaction in the moral 

 light of gardening ; but I know people in this 

 country take great liberties at the polls. Polly 

 noticed that the beans had not themselves come 

 up in any proper sense, but that the dirt had got 

 off from them, leaving them uncovered. She 

 thought it would be well to sprinkle a slight 

 layer of dirt over them ; and I, indulgently, con- 

 sented. It occurred to me, when she had gone, 



