e celery, which was beautifully long and
white and delicate, and at the condition of things generally on the
ground, all of which his eye took in; although he was too much of a
magnate in his own line to express the approval he felt.

'There!' said Mrs. Blumenfeld, eyeing her celery stalks; 'kin you beat
that where you come from?'

'It's very fair,' said Christopher--'very fair. But England can beat
the world, mum, in gardening and that. I suppose you can't expect it of
a new country like this.'

'Can't expect what? to beat the world? You jes' wait a bit, till you
see. You jes' only wait a bit.'

'What do you think of England and America going into partnership?'
asked Mr. Bounder, bending to pick up a refuse stem that Mrs.
Blumenfeld had rejected. 'Think we couldn't be a match for most things
u-nited?'

'I find myself a match for most things, as it is,' returned the lady
promptly.

'But you must want help sometimes?' said Christopher, with a sharp and
somewhat sly glance at her.

'When I do, I git it,--or I do without it.'

'That's when you can't get the right kind.'

'Jes' so.'

'It ain't for a man properly to say what he can do or what he can't do;
words is but breath, they say; and those as know a man can give a
pretty good guess what he's good for; but, however, when he's speakin'
to them as don't know him, perhaps it ain't no more but fair that he
should be allowed to speak for himself. Now if I say that accordin' to
the best o' my knowledge and belief, what I offer you _is_ the right
kind o' help, you won't think it's brag or bluster, I hope?'

'Why shouldn't I?' said the little woman. But Christopher thought the
tone of the words was not discouraging. 'They does allays practise
fence,' he thought to himself.

'Well, mum, if you hev ever been up to our place in the summer-time,
you may hev seen our garden; and to a lady o' your experience I needn't
to say no more.'

'Wall,' said Mrs. Blumenfeld, by way of conceding so much, 'I'll allow
Colonel Gainsborough has a pretty fair gardener, ef he _hes_ some
furrin notions.'

'I'll bring them furrin notions to your help, mum,' said Mr. Bounder
eagerly. 'I know my business as well as any man on this side or that
side either. It's no boastin' to say that.'

'Sounds somethin' like it. But what'll the colonel do without you, or
the colonel's garden? that's what I can't make out. Hev you and he hed
a falling out?' And the speaker raised herself up straight