OUR RURAL DIVINITY 129 



hogany. I have found there is nothing like the 

 earth to draw the various social distempers out of 

 one. The blue devils take flight at once if they 

 see you mean to bury them and make compost of 

 them. Emerson intimates that the scholar had bet- 

 ter not try to have two gardens; but I could never 

 spend an hour hoeing up dock and red-root and 

 twitch-grass without in some way getting rid of many 

 weeds and fungus, — unwholesome growths that a 

 petty indoors life was forever fosteriug in my own 

 moral and intellectual nature. 



But the finishing touch was not given till Chloe 

 came. She was the jewel for which this homely 

 setting waited. My agriculture had some object 

 then. The old gate never opened with such alacrity 

 as when she paused before it. How we waited for 

 her coming! Should I send Drewer, the colored 

 patriarch, for her? No; the master of the house 

 himself should receive Juno at the capital. 



"One cask for you," said the clerk, referring to 

 the steamer bill of lading. 



"Then I hope it 's a cask of milk," I said. "I 

 expected a cow." 



"One cask, it says here." 



" WeU, let 's see it; I '11 warrant it has horns and 

 is tied by a rope; " which proved to be the case, for 

 there stood the only object that bore my name, chew- 

 ing its cud, on the forward deck. How she liked 

 the voyage I could not find out; but she seemed to 

 relish so much the feeling of solid ground beneath 

 her feet once more, that she led me a lively step all 



