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.
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