to see what
they look like w'en they're a-eatin' their wittles. Anyhow, it helped
me to see the gardener comin' up one o' the side walks; so I wheels
about double quick, an' looked pleased to see him.

"`Hallo!' cries he.

"`I was lookin' for you,' says I, quite easy like.

"`Did you expect to find me in the dinin'-room?' says he.

"`Not just that,' says I, `but it's nat'ral for a feller to look at a
'andsome room w'en he chances to pass it.'

"`Ah,' says he, in a sort o' way as I didn't quite like. `What d'ee
want wi' me?'

"`I wants a job,' says I.

"`Are you a gardener?' he axed.

"`Yes--leastwise,' says I, `I've worked a goodish bit in gardings in my
time, an' can turn my 'and to a'most anythink.'

"`Oh,' says he. `Look 'ere, my man, what d'ee call that there tree?'
He p'inted to one close alongside.

"`That?' says I. `Well, it--it looks uncommon like a happle.'

"`Do it?' says he. `Now look 'ere, you be off as fast as your legs can
take you, or I'll set the 'ousedog at 'ee.'

"W'en he said that, Bill, I do assure you, lad, that my experience in
the ring seemed to fly into my knuckles, an' it was as much as ever I
could do to keep my left off his nob and my right out of his
breadbasket. But I restrained myself. If there's one thing I'm proud
of, Bill, it's the wirtue o' self-restraint in the way o' business. I
wheeled about, held up my nose, an' walked off wi' the air of a dook.
You see, I didn't want for to have no more words wi' the gardener,--for
why? because I'd seen all I wanted to see--d'ee see? But there was
one--no, two--things I saw which it was as well I did see."

"An' what was they?" asked Bill.

"Two statters."

"An' what are statters?"

"Man alive I don't ye know? It's them things that they make out o'
stone, an' marable, an' chalk--sometimes men, sometimes women, sometimes
babbies, an' mostly with no clo'es on to speak of--"

"Oh! I know; but _I_ call 'em statoos. Fire away, Dick; what see'd you
about the statoos?"

"Why, I see'd that they wasn't made in the usual way of stone or chalk,
but of iron. I have heerd say that sodgers long ago used to fight in
them sort o' dresses, though I don't believe it myself. Anyhow, there
they was, the two of 'em, one on each side of the winder, that stiff
that they could stand without nobody inside of 'em, an' one of 'em with
a big thing on his shoulder, as if he wor ready to smash somebody over
the head. I thought to myself if