WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 93 



tractive. It is strange what a taste you sud- 

 denly have for things you never liked before. 

 The squash has always been to me a dish of 

 contempt ; but I eat it now as if it were my 

 best friend. I never cared for the beet or the 

 bean ; but I fancy now that I could eat them all, 

 tops and all, so completely have they been trans- 

 formed by the soil in which they grew. I think 

 the squash is less squashy, and the beet has a 

 deeper hue of rose, for my care of them. 



I had begun to nurse a good deal of pride in 

 presiding over a table whereon was the fruit of 

 my honest industry. But woman ! John Stuart 

 Mill is right when he says that we do not know 

 anything about women. Six thousand years is 

 as one day with them. I thought I had some- 

 thing to do with those vegetables. But when I 

 saw Polly seated at her side of the table, presid- 

 ing over the new and susceptible vegetables, 

 flanked by the squash and the beans, and smil- 



