WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 85 



cuts off a better roast for me. The butcher 

 is my friend when he sees that I am not 

 wholly dependent on him. 



It is at home, however, that the effect is 

 most marked, though sometimes in a way 

 that I had not expected. I have never read 

 of any Roman supper that seemed to me 

 equal to a dinner of my own vegetables, 

 when everything on the table is the product 

 of my own labor, except the clams, which I 

 have not been able to raise yet, and the 

 chickens, which have withdrawn from the 

 garden just when they were most attractive. 

 It is strange what a taste you suddenly have 

 for things you never liked before. The 

 squash has always been to me a dish of con- 

 tempt; but I eat it now as if it were my 

 best friend. I never cared for the beet or 

 the bean ; but I fancy now that I could eat 

 them all, tops and all, so completely have 

 they been transformed by the soil in which 

 they grew. I think the squash is less squashy, 

 and the beet has a deeper hue of rose, foi 

 my care of them. 



