WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 169 



in heaven weep over more than another, it is the 

 onion. 



I know that there is supposed to be a preju- 

 dice against the onion ; but I think there is 

 rather a cowardice in regard to it. I doubt not 

 that all men and women love the onion ; but 

 few confess their love. Affection for it is con- 

 cealed. Good New-Englanders are as shy of 

 owning it as they are of talking about religion. 

 Some people have days on which they eat 

 onions, what you might call " retreats," or 

 their "Thursdays." The act is in the nature 

 of a religious ceremony, an Eleusinian mys- 

 tery ; not a breath of it must get abroad. On 

 that day they see no company ; they deny the 

 kiss of greeting to the dearest friend ; they 

 retire within themselves, and hold communion 

 with one of the most pungent and penetrating 

 manifestations of the moral vegetable world. 

 Happy is said to be the family which can eat 

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