to contribute to the community, I drop from communal notice. But
there are certain ladies who bow sweetly to me when my roses and
honeysuckles burst into bloom; a fat old cavalier of the South
begins to shake hands with me when my asparagus bed begins to send
up its tender stalks; I am in high favor with two or three young
ladies at the season of lilies and sweet-pea; there is one old soul
who especially loves rhubarb pies, which she makes to look like
little latticed porches in front of little green skies, and it is
she who remembers me and my row of pie-plant; and still another,
who knows better than cat-birds when currants are ripe. Above all,
there is a preacher, who thinks my sins are as scarlet so long as
my strawberries are, and plants himself in my bed at that time to
reason with me of judgment to come; and a doctor, who gets despondent
about my constitution in pear-time--after which my health seems to
return, but never my pears.

So that, on the whole, from May till October I am the bright side
of the moon, and the telescopes of the town are busy observing
my phenomena; after which it is as though I had rolled over on my
dark side, there to lie forgotten till once more the sun entered
the proper side of the zodiac. But let me except always the few
steadily luminous spirits I know, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. If any one wishes to become famous in
a community, let him buy a small farm on the edge of it and cultivate
fruits, berries, and flowers, which he freely gives away or lets
be freely taken.

All this has taken freely of my swift April days. Besides, I have
made me a new side-porch, made it myself, for I like to hammer and
drive things home, and because the rose on the old one had rotted