After Having Walked On Its Top
A Considerable Way I At Last Reached The Place Where Ten Men Were At
Work.
I asked, if any of them could tell me where Mr. Bertram was?
An elderly looking man, with wide
Trousers and a large leather apron
on, looking at me said, "My name is Bertram, dost thee want me?"
Sir, I am come on purpose to converse with you, if you can be spared
from your labour. "Very easily," he answered, "I direct and advise
more than I work." We walked toward the house, where he made me take
a chair while he went to put on clean clothes, after which he
returned and sat down by me. The fame of your knowledge, said I, in
American botany, and your well-known hospitality, have induced me to
pay you a visit, which I hope you will not think troublesome: I
should be glad to spend a few hours in your garden. "The greatest
advantage," replied he, "which I receive from what thee callest my
botanical fame, is the pleasure which it often procureth me in
receiving the visits of friends and foreigners: but our jaunt into
the garden must be postponed for the present, as the bell is ringing
for dinner." We entered into a large hall, where there was a long
table full of victuals; at the lowest part sat his negroes, his
hired men were next, then the family and myself; and at the head,
the venerable father and his wife presided. Each reclined his head
and said his prayers, divested of the tedious cant of some, and of
the ostentatious style of others. "After the luxuries of our
cities," observed he, "this plain fare must appear to thee a severe
fast." By no means, Mr. Bertram, this honest country dinner
convinces me, that you receive me as a friend and an old
acquaintance. "I am glad of it, for thee art heartily welcome. I
never knew how to use ceremonies; they are insufficient proofs of
sincerity; our society, besides, are utterly strangers to what the
world calleth polite expressions. We treat others as we treat
ourselves. I received yesterday a letter from Philadelphia, by which
I understand thee art a Russian; what motives can possibly have
induced thee to quit thy native country and to come so far in quest
of knowledge or pleasure? Verily it is a great compliment thee
payest to this our young province, to think that anything it
exhibiteth may be worthy thy attention." I have been most amply
repaid for the trouble of the passage. I view the present Americans
as the seed of future nations, which will replenish this boundless
continent; the Russians may be in some respects compared to you; we
likewise are a new people, new I mean in knowledge, arts, and
improvements. Who knows what revolutions Russia and America may one
day bring about; we are perhaps nearer neighbours than we imagine. I
view with peculiar attention all your towns, I examine their
situation and the police, for which many are already famous.
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