----[A], with soft dews hanging on her pouting lips, began to take her
early walk over the eastern hills; and presently after, that gallant
person the Sun stole softly from his wife's chamber to pay his addresses
to her; when the gentleman asked his guest if he would walk forth and
survey his little garden, which he readily agreed to, and Joseph at the
same time awaking from a sleep in which he had been two hours buried,
went with them. No parterres, no fountains, no statues, embellished this
little garden. Its only ornament was a short walk, shaded on each side
by a filbert-hedge, with a small alcove at one end, whither in hot
weather the gentleman and his wife used to retire and divert themselves
with their children, who played in the walk before them. But, though
vanity had no votary in this little spot, here was variety of fruit and
everything useful for the kitchen, which was abundantly sufficient to
catch the admiration of Adams, who told the gentleman he had certainly a
good gardener. Sir, answered he, that gardener is now before you:
whatever you see here is the work solely of my own hands. Whilst I am
providing necessaries for my table, I likewise procure myself an
appetite for them. In fair seasons I seldom pass less than six hours of
the twenty-four in this place, where I am not idle; and by these means I
have been able to preserve my health ever since my arrival here, without
assistance from physic. Hither I generally repair at the dawn, and
exercise myself whilst my wife dresses her children and prepares our
breakfast; after which we are seldom asunder during the residue of the
day, for, when the weather will not permit them to accompany me here, I
am usually within with them; for I am neither ashamed of conversing with
my wife nor of playing with my children: to say the truth, I do not
perceive that inferiority of understanding which the levity of rakes,
the dulness of men of business, or the austerity of the learned, would
persuade us of in women. As for my woman, I declare I have found none of
my own sex capable of making juster observations on life, or of