In the Beginning 5 



"Oh," said I, "I dug it up, and made the earth light. 

 What more do you have to do?" and I showed him where I 

 had prodded the earth a little, perhaps three inches deep. 



He did not answer, but smiled inscrutably. " I'll make the 

 bed ready for you," he said; and then began such elaborate 

 operations as I had never dreamed of. 



It was around a huge boulder that the bed was to be made. 

 First he took an axe a very dull one, to be sure; but I began 

 to see the varied and hitherto unsuspected uses of a whole row 

 of axes which hung neatly upon the barn wall and made a 

 deep clean-cut line through the turf two feet distant from the 

 boulder. Making cross cuts a foot apart, he lifted the squares 

 of sod lightly with an implement called a spading fork, turned 

 them over to beat the loose earth from the roots, which soil he 

 assured me was too good to lose. Then he spaded the earth 

 fifteen inches deep, picking out every stone, then brought a 

 whole wheelbarrow load of well rotted manure, working it in 

 thoroughly, and added a bucketful of wood ashes, mixing it 

 with the soil. 



I am ashamed to relate the amazement I felt at the great 

 care he was taking. " Do you have to do this with all flower 

 beds?" I asked with studied carelessness. 



" If you want things to grow," answered he. Now if Adam 

 had been any other man he would have seized the opportun- 

 ity to instruct his wife on heiftmany dishonorable points of 

 ignorance; but, because it was he, I was, allowed to chew the 

 cud of reflection on past sins of omission and draw my own 

 inferences from former failures. 



When the bed was smoothed and raked, and the loose earth 

 and stones removed from the grass, Adam stood off for the first 

 time to view his work, which restraint I think shows masculine 

 superiority. I have a fluttering way of stepping off at least 

 ten times while doing anything, just to see how well it looks. 



