GARDEN EROLOGY. 163 



me wonderfully to see the way they twisted a piece of 

 bread and cheese and swallowing the claret. Those 

 men were feasting, and I, looking at them, so that we 

 were all enjoying, every one his own way, the son of our 

 prioress of the convent asked me several times " why 

 don't you eat and drink like those men, you work as 

 much as they do and more." That may be so, but 

 those men do not eat as much good solid food in two 

 or three days as we do in one meal. What those men 

 drink especially and stimulated them would have had 

 the contrary effect with me, " the drinking especially." 

 I have always talked a great deal and probably oftener 

 more than necessary, but never under the influence of 

 liquor. I have always been in DREAD to hear any one 

 speaking of me and saying of me as I have often times 

 heard people speaking of men under the influence of 

 liquor say " That man is drunk" It is not him who 

 speaks, but the liquor, he is drunk. I am not very 

 sure if 1 have not made the above remark about drink- 

 ing to warn you that all I have said from the beginning 

 of my prolix narrations of my recollections, digressions 

 and the rest is to let you understand that all I have 

 said comes from the heart, not from of a bottle, unless 

 the bottle of ink. 



So that I will come to the conclusion that, as I have 

 told you has been, partly to indulge my notions, to let 



