nd,
persisting in trying to lay the "duchesses" out in a square when they
ought to go in a string on one side, he broke them or tore them down
invariably. As for the peach trees, he got mixed up with over-mother
branches, under-mother branches, and second-under-mother branches. The
empty and the full always presented themselves when they were not
wanted, and it was impossible to obtain on an espalier a perfect
rectangle, with six branches to the right and six to the left, not
including the two principal ones, the whole forming a fine bit of
herringbone work.

Bouvard tried to manage the apricot trees, but they rebelled. He lowered
their stems nearly to a level with the ground; none of them shot up
again. The cherry trees, in which he had made notches, produced gum.

At first, they cut very long, which destroyed the principal buds, and
then very short, which led to excessive branching; and they often
hesitated, not knowing how to distinguish between buds of trees and buds
of flowers. They were delighted to have flowers, but when they
recognised their mistake, they tore off three fourths of them to
strengthen the remainder.

Incessantly they kept talking about "sap" and "cambium," "paling up,"
"breaking down," and "blinding of an eye." In the middle of their
dining-room they had in a frame the list of their young growths, as if
they were pupils, with a number which was repeated in the garden on a
little piece of wood, at the foot of the tree. Out of bed at dawn, they
kept working till nightfall with their twigs carried in their belts. In
the cold mornings of spring, Bouvard wore his knitted vest under his
blouse, and Pecuchet his old frock-coat under his packcloth wrapper; and
the people passing by the open fence heard them coughing in the damp
atmosphere.

Sometimes Pecuchet drew forth his manual from his pocket, and he studied
a paragraph of it standing up with his grafting-tool near him in the
attitude of the gardener who decorated the frontispiece of the book.
This resemblance flattered him exceedingly, and made him entertain more
esteem for the author.

Bouvard was continually perched on a high ladder before the pyramids.
One day he was seized with dizziness, and, not daring to come down
farther, he called on Pecuchet to come to his aid.

At length pears made their appearance, and there were plums in the
orchard. Then they made use of all the devices which had been
recommended to them against the birds. But t