Francis desired to be of the party, that he might direct the
laying out of the garden, he said, with an important air, as he had been
his mother's assistant on its formation. We arranged our bag of
vegetable-seeds, and having bathed my wife's foot with a simple
embrocation, we offered our united prayers, and retired to our beds to
prepare ourselves for the toils of the next day.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXXIX.
We rose early; and, after our usual morning duties, we left our invalids
for the whole day, taking with us, for our dinner, a goose and some
potatoes, made ready the evening before. We harnessed the bull and the
buffalo to the cart, and I sent Fritz and Jack to the wood of bamboos,
with orders to load the cart with as many as it would contain; and,
especially, to select some very thick ones for my colonnade; the rest I
intended for props for my young trees; and this I proposed to be my
first undertaking. Francis would have preferred beginning with the
_Franciade_, or the garden, but he was finally won over by the thoughts
of the delicious fruits, which we might lose by our neglect; the
peaches, plums, pears, and, above all, the cherries, of which he was
very fond. He then consented to assist me in holding the trees whilst I
replaced the roots; after which he went to cut the reeds to tie them.
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