"On the whole it is a very plain plant,
Makes no conspicuous show,
But the internal appearance is lovely
Of the unostentatious Potato.

"On the land or on the sea,
Wherever we may go,
We are always glad to welcome
The sound Potato."[*]

[*]The elder Miss Cobb was wrong in thinking this poem Sylvia's. It
was extant at the time over the signature of another writer, whose
authorship is not known to have been questioned. Miss Sylvia perhaps
copied it out of admiration, or as a model for her own use.

J.L.A.


In the afternoon I was cutting stakes at the wood-pile for my
butterbeans, and a bright idea struck me. During my engagement to
Georgiana I cannot always be darting in and out of Mrs. Cobb's front
door like a swallow through a barn. Neither can I talk freely to
Georgiana--with her up at the window and me down on the ground--when I
wish to breathe into her ear the things that I must utter or die.
Besides, the sewing-girl whom Georgiana has engaged is nearly always
there. So that as I was in the act of trimming a long slender stick,
it occurred to me that I might make use of this to elevate any little
notes that I might wish to write over the garden fence up to
Georgiana's window.