Fifteen Days: An Extract from Edward Colvil's JournalPutnam, Mary Lowell
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Fifteen Days: An Extract from Edward Colvil's Journal
Putnam, Mary Lowell
Diary fiction; Slavery -- United States -- Fiction
It was not long before we came upon the Doctor. I could not draw his
full portrait at first sight, as I did Harry's, for I had only a
profile view of his stooping figure, until I was quite close to him.
He, too, carried a knapsack;--a large russet one; Harry's was
black;--and strapped to it was a long umbrella, which protruded on
either side. He was grubbing in a meadow, and was either really so
intent that he did not see us, or thought it better not to let us
know that he did until he had finished his work. We stood near him
some minutes before he straightened himself up, booty in hand. He
scrutinized his prize for a moment, and then, apparently satisfied,
came forward and saluted mo in a very friendly tone. His dark-blue
spectacles prevented me from seeing whether the eyes seconded the
voice, and his other features are too heavy to be very expressive.
When I had made known my satisfaction at his arrival, and he had
acquiesced,--when I had inquired after Selden, and he had answered
that he had not seen our common friend for six weeks, we stood
opposite each other, I looking for a subject which could not be
disposed of so promptly, and he, apparently, waiting for me to bring
it forward. But Harry now spoke eagerly:--
"Have you found it?"--holding out his hand at the same time for the
poor little specimen which the Doctor held between his thumb and
finger.
"Yes."
"The very one you have been looking for?"
"The very thing."
"Shall I put it into the box?"
Harry received the little object respectfully, and deposited it in the
tin case with care. He then relieved Dr. Borrow's shoulders of the
knapsack and took it on his own, having first withdrawn the umbrella
and placed it in the hands of the owner, who watched its extrication
with interest, and received it in a way which showed it to be an
object of attachment. The Doctor gathered up some inferior spoil which
lay in a circle round the place where he had been at work. Harry found
room for all in the box. He had entered so fully into his companion's
success, that I thought he might after all be a botanist himself; but
he told me, as we walked towards the house, that he knew nothing of
plants except what he had learned in journeying with Dr. Borrow.
"But I know what it is to want to complete your collection," he added,
laughing. "We have been all the morning looking for this particular
kind of grass. Dr. Borrow thought it must grow somewhere in this
neighborhood, and here it is at last. The Doctor has a great
collection of grasses."
"The largest, I think I may say, on this continent,--one of the
largest, perhaps, that exists," said the Doctor, with the candor of a
man who feels called upon to render himself justice, since there is no
one else qualified to do it. And then he entered upon grasses; setting
forth the great part filled by this powerful family, in the history of
our earth, and vindicating triumphantly his regard for its humblest
member.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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