digging up; I
forgot, and put them all in the barrow together; that's how it
happened."

"What? The whole lot?" the Captain inquired. "The streaked daffodil
and all? What did Julia say?"

"She said it did not matter," Johnny told him; "they'll be all the
more surprise to us when they come up next year."

"She didn't mind, not even about the streaked daffodil?"

"Oh, that was not there," Mr. Gillat said, serenely unconscious that
the fate of that bulb was the only interest. "We have got that by
itself."

He showed a little piece of shelf penned off from the rest and
carefully covered with wire netting for fear of rats. Three different
shaped bulbs were there in a row.

"That's it," Johnny said, pointing to one of the three. "And that end
one is the red tulip with the black middle; it is supposed to be very
good; and that other is the double blue hyacinth from down by the
gate; we are going to try it in a pot in the house next year and have
it bloom early."

Captain Polkington nodded, but did not show much interest. "Did you
put these here, or did she?" he asked.

"She did," Johnny answered. "She cleans them much better than I do,
and we knew they were choice ones, the best one of each kind, so she
cleaned them; but I made the wire cover."

The Captain did not praise the ingenuity of this contrivance, which he
did not admire at all, and soon afterwards he sauntered back to the
house. He was dozing in the easy-chair in the front kitchen when
Johnny came in to change his coat before setting out to meet Julia. He
did not seem to have moved much when Mr. Gillat came down-stairs ready
to start.

"What?" he roused himself to say when Johnny announced his
destination. "Oh, all right, you need not have waked me to tell me
that, it really is of no importance to me if you like to walk in the
blazing sun." He settled himself afresh in the chair, muttering
something about the heat, and Johnny went out, quietly closing the
door after him.

It was an hour later when Julia and the faithful Johnny came back, the
latter decidedly hot although he was carrying one of the lightest of
the parcels. Captain Polkington was still in his chair; he woke up as
they entered.

"Why," he said, "I must have dropped asleep!" He rose and went to take
Julia's parcels. "Let me put these away for you," he said
solicitiously; "it is a great deal too hot for you to be walking in
the sun and carrying all these things."

"Thank you," Julia an