ing necessary to his attending Miss Phoebe in her rides
round the country. He worked regularly and steadily at whatever labour
was assigned to him, receiving wages like the other farm servants; and
finally it was discovered that one of the first uses he made of these
wages was to purchase spelling-books and copy-books, and enter himself
at an evening school, where the opening difficulties being surmounted,
his progress astonished every body.

His chief fancy was for gardening. The love, and, to a certain point,
the knowledge of flowers which he had always evinced increased upon him
every day;--and happening to accompany Phoebe on one of her visits
to the young ladies at the Hall, who were much attached to the lovely
little girl, he saw Lady Mordaunt's French garden, and imitated it the
next year for his young mistress in wild flowers, after such a fashion
as to excite the wonder and admiration of all beholders.

From that moment Jesse's destiny was decided. Sir Robert's gardener, a
clever Scotchman, took great notice of him and offered to employ him at
the Hall; but the Moors had to poor Jesse a fascination which he could
not surmount. He felt that it would be easier to tear himself from
the place altogether, than to live in the neighbourhood and not there.
Accordingly he lingered on for a year or two, and then took a grateful
leave of his benefactors, and set forth to London with the avowed
intention of seeking employment in a great nursery-ground, to the
proprietor of which he was furnished with letters, not merely from his
friend the gardener, but from Sir Robert himself.

N. B. It is recorded that on the night of Jesse's departure,
Venus refused her supper and Phoebe cried herself to sleep.

Time wore on. Occasional tidings had reached the Moors of the prosperous
fortunes of the adventurer. He had been immediately engaged by the great
nurseryman to whom he was recommended, and so highly approved, that in
little more than two years he became foreman of the flower department;
another two years saw him chief manager of the garden; and now, at the
end of a somewhat longer period, there was a rumour of his having been
taken into the concern as acting partner; a rumour which received
full confirmation in a letter from himself, accompanying a magnificent
present of shrubs, plants, and flower-roots, amongst which were two
Dahlias, ticketed 'the Moors' and 'the Phoebe,' and announcing his
intention of visiting h