WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 33 



Remark. This moral vegetable figure 

 is at the service of any clergyman who will 

 have the manliness to come forward and help 

 me at a day's hoeing on my potatoes. None 

 but the orthodox need apply. 



I, however, believe in the intellectual, if 

 not the moral, qualities of vegetables, and 

 especially weeds. There was a worthless 

 vine that (or who) started up about midway 

 between a grape-trellis and a row of bean- 

 poles, some three feet from each, but a little 

 nearer the trellis. When it came out of the 

 ground, it looked around to see what it 

 should do. The trellis was already occupied. 

 The bean-pole was empty. There was evi- 

 dently a little the best chance of light, air, 

 and sole proprietorship on the pole. And 

 the vine started for the pole, and began to 

 climb it with determination. Here was as 

 distinct an act of choice, of reason, as a boy 

 exercises when he goes into a forest, and, 

 looking about, decides which tree he will 

 climb. And, besides, how did the vine know 

 enough to travel in exactly the right direcv 



