encouraging remark,--

"If we don't have any vegetables till we raise 'em, we shall be
carnivorous some time to come."

It was said with that provoking indifference more trying to a sensitive
mind than downright insult. You know it is based on some hidden
obstacle, palpable to your enemy, though hidden from you,--and that he
is calm because he know that the nature of things will work against you,
so that he need not interfere. If I had been less interested, I would
have revenged myself on him by remaining silent; but I was very much
interested, so I strangled my pride and said,--

"Why not?"

"Land is too old for such things. Soil isn't mellow enough."

I had always supposed that the greater part of the main-land of our
continent was of equal antiquity, and dated back alike to the alluvial
period; but I suppose our little three acres must have been injected
through the intervening strata by some physical convulsion, from the
drift, or the tertiary formation, perhaps even from the primitive
granite.

"What are you going to do?" I ventured to inquire. "I don't suppose the
land will grow any younger by keeping."

"Plant it with corn and potatoes for at least two years before there can
be anything like a garden."