Ch. Pray, what is this bush with narrow whitish leaves and blue flowers?
Jac. Don’t you know? It is rosemary.
Ch. Is it good for anything?
Jac. We like the smell of it; and then the leaves, mixed with a little balm, make pleasant tea, which we sometimes drink in the afternoon.
Ch. Here are several more plants that I never saw before.
Jac. Some of them are pot-herbs, that we put into our broth or porridge; and others are physic herbs, for we cannot afford to go to a doctor for every trifling ailment.
Ch. But how do you learn the use of these things?
Jac. Why, partly, master, from an old herbal that I have got; and partly from my good mother and some old neighbours; for we poor people are obliged to help one another as well as we can. If you were curious about plants, I could go into the fields, and show you a great many that we reckon very fine for several uses, though I suppose we don’t call them by the proper names.
Mr. Ev. You keep your garden very neat, friend, and seem to make the most of every inch of ground.
Jac. Why, sir, we have hands enough, and all of us like to be doing a little in it when our in-doors work is over. I am in hopes soon to be allowed a bit of land from the waste for a potato-ground, which will be a great help to us. I shall then be able to keep a pig.