130 JULY 



Meteors also greatly interest him, and those which 

 were expected some time since, and never arrived, 

 roused his scorn of the wise men who had foretold 

 them. He spent several nights in searching for 

 them, and even now he is not tired of relating his 

 curious experiences to a sympathetic listener. 



" I scanned the horrazon," he says, "from Uriah 

 to Ursula Major " (did he mean from Orion to 

 Ursa Major?), "an' I saw no me-oters whatever. 

 But some queer things happened in the sky- 

 things as comical as ever I did see. Ursula was 

 behavin' quite proper" (very consoling, this), "an' 

 the Pole Star, he never budged an inch ; but most 

 o' the big stars wandered about a good bit, some 

 on 'em as many as twenty or thirty yards from their 

 rightful plazes. There wasn't no me-oters, not to 

 call me-oters, but what / says is I expects that's 

 how they went off." 



I cannot quite follow my friend Daniel's line of 

 reasoning here, but his interest in astronomy is as 

 indisputable as his strict sobriety. 



July 24. Before the end of this month two of 

 the most important of outdoor operations demand 

 attention the budding of roses and the layering 

 of carnations. 



Few things are more heartbreaking than to see 

 unclouded skies succeed each other, day in, day 

 out, all through the time when rosebuds are crying 

 aloud to be united to the brier stock. I have 

 never been very successful in budding after giving 

 them water from the watering-pot, though I have 

 carried on the operation for a week or more before 

 budding. The natural rain from heaven is far more 



