第13章

My garden has been visited by a High Official Person.President Gr-nt was here just before the Fourth, getting his mind quiet for that event by a few days of retirement, staying with a friend at the head of our street; and I asked him if he wouldn't like to come down our way Sunday afternoon and take a plain, simple look at my garden, eat a little lemon ice-cream and jelly-cake, and drink a glass of native lager-beer.I thought of putting up over my gate, " Welcome to the Nation's Gardener; " but I hate nonsense, and did n't do it.

I, however, hoed diligently on Saturday: what weeds I could n't remove I buried, so that everything would look all right.The borders of my drive were trimmed with scissors; and everything that could offend the Eye of the Great was hustled out of the way.

In relating this interview, it must be distinctly understood that Iam not responsible for anything that the President said; nor is he, either.He is not a great speaker; but whatever he says has an esoteric and an exoteric meaning; and some of his remarks about my vegetables went very deep.I said nothing to him whatever about politics, at which he seemed a good deal surprised: he said it was the first garden he had ever been in, with a man, when the talk was not of appointments.I told him that this was purely vegetable;after which he seemed more at his ease, and, in fact, delighted with everything he saw.He was much interested in my strawberry-beds, asked what varieties I had, and requested me to send him some seed.

He said the patent-office seed was as difficult to raise as an appropriation for the St.Domingo business.The playful bean seemed also to please him; and he said he had never seen such impressive corn and potatoes at this time of year; that it was to him an unexpected pleasure, and one of the choicest memories that he should take away with him of his visit to New England.

N.B.--That corn and those potatoes which General Gr-nt looked at Iwill sell for seed, at five dollars an ear, and one dollar a potato.

Office-seekers need not apply.

Knowing the President's great desire for peas, I kept him from that part of the garden where the vines grow.But they could not be concealed.Those who say that the President is not a man easily moved are knaves or fools.When he saw my pea-pods, ravaged by the birds, he burst into tears.A man of war, he knows the value of peas.I told him they were an excellent sort, "The Champion of England." As quick as a flash he said, "Why don't you call them 'The Reverdy Johnson'?"It was a very clever bon-mot; but I changed the subject.

The sight of my squashes, with stalks as big as speaking-trumpets, restored the President to his usual spirits.He said the summer squash was the most ludicrous vegetable he knew.It was nearly all leaf and blow, with only a sickly, crook-necked fruit after a mighty fuss.It reminded him of the member of Congress from...; but Ihastened to change the subject.

As we walked along, the keen eye of the President rested upon some handsome sprays of "pusley," which must have grown up since Saturday night.It was most fortunate; for it led his Excellency to speak of the Chinese problem.He said he had been struck with one, coupling of the Chinese and the "pusley" in one of my agricultural papers; and it had a significance more far-reaching than I had probably supposed.

He had made the Chinese problem a special study.He said that I was right in saying that "pusley" was the natural food of the Chinaman, and that where the "pusley" was, there would the Chinaman be also.