I may as well tell you now, though, that his
natural instincts never led him to work. After a week, when a
second crop of weeds was coming on, Mallory fell off also, and
thenceforth Shelldrake and myself had the entire charge of the
garden. Perkins did the rougher work, and was always on hand when
he was wanted. Very soon, however, I noticed that he was in the
habit of disappearing for two or three hours in the afternoon.
"Our meals preserved the same Spartan simplicity. Eunice, however,
carried her point in regard to the salad; for Abel, after tasting
and finding it very palatable, decided that oil and vinegar might
be classed in the catalogue of True Food. Indeed, his long
abstinence from piquant flavors gave him such an appetite for it
that our supply of lettuce was soon exhausted. An embarrassing
accident also favored us with the use of salt. Perkins happening
to move his knee at the moment I was dipping an onion into the
blacking-box lid, our supply was knocked upon the floor. He picked
it up, and we both hoped the accident might pass unnoticed.
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