uld be so lazy.
If you please, Mr Brownsmith, I've got to work and do something, and if
you will have me, I should like to come."

"Well, well," he said, "mine's a good business and profitable and
healthy, and there are times when, in spite of bad crops, bad weather,
and market losses, I thank God that I took to such a pleasant and
instructive way of getting a living."

"It is instructive then, sir?" I said.

"Instructive, my lad!" he cried with energy. "I don't know any business
that is more full of teaching. I've been at it all my life, and the
older I grow the more I find there is to learn."

"I like that," I said, for it opened out a vista of adventure to me that
seemed full of bright flowers and sunshine.

"A man who has brains may go on learning and making discoveries, not
discoveries of countries and wonders, but of little things that may make
matters better for the people who are to come after him. Then he may
turn a bit of the England where he works into a tropical country, by
covering it over with glass, and having a stove; then some day, if he
goes on trying, he may find himself able to write FRHS at the end of his
name."

"And did you, sir?"

"No," he said, "I never did. I was content with plodding. I'm a
regular plodder, you see; so's Samuel."

"Is he, sir?" I said, for he evidently wanted me to speak.

"Yes, a regular plodder. Well, there, my boy, we'll see. Don't you be
in a hurry; wait and see if your relatives are going to do anything
better for you. If they are not, don't you be in a hurry."

But I was in a hurry, for the idea of coming to that garden, living
there, and learning all about the flowers and fruit, excited me, longing
as I was for some change.

"Yes, yes," he said, "wait, wait;" and he looked at me, and then about
him in the slow meditative manner peculiar to gardeners; "we'll see,
we'll see, wait till you know whether your people are going to do
anything for you."

"But, indeed, sir," I began.

"Yes, yes, I know, boy," he replied; but we must wait. "Perhaps they've
planted a business bulb for you, and we must wait and see whether it is
going to shoot and blossom. You're impatient; you want to pull up the
bulb and see if it has any roots yet."

I looked at him in a disappointed way, and he smiled.

"Come, come," he said; "at your age you can afford to wait a few days,
if it is for your good. There, wait and see, and I'll be plain with
you; if they do not fi