90 THE FLORIST. 



A PACKET OF SEEDS SAVED BY AN OLD GARDENER. 



[Continued from p. 64.] 



The head-gardener was a kind man, and took as great pains to 

 teach me as I did to learn. He was no one's enemy but his own, 

 only in one way, and that was his example, which was bad for others. 

 He must have had a good temper once ; but his drinking habits 

 killed all his respect for himself, and then he forgot his respect for 

 others, and was very violent to his under-men. I was eight years 

 with him, and did all I could to keep things straight ; but the more 

 I did, the worse he got ; for when he found things done, he kept 

 more away from his duty, till affairs went back for want of help, and 

 matters got very unpleasant indeed. Just as they were about the 

 worst, I got another place, and that all in a hurry. I'd often won- 

 dered if ever I should better myself ; and just when I had least hope, 

 I got what I wanted, without asking. 



One day a friend of my master's was walking round with him, 

 and just as they came where I was nailing some wall-trees, the 

 gentleman said, "I want a good gardener; does your man know 

 one .?" " There's one," said the squire ; " you may have him if you 

 like." A few words settled it, and I was to go in a month upon 

 trial. I don't know what else my master said, but I did hear hicn 

 say, " He's a methodistical fellow, and that'll just suit you." 



It was the fashion fifty years ago to call any body a methodist 

 that kept decent, and didn't go to church. The methodists had 

 turned an old barn outside the village into a meeting-house, and a 

 good many poor people used it, and very angry it made the parson 

 and the gentry ; but they took an odd way to put it down, for they 

 would give none of the charities to such as went to hear the preacher, 

 nor let them have any of the allotments. It mattered not how good 

 the people were, go to church they must, or nothing for them ; but 

 let a man be ever such a blackguard, if he did but go to church, he 

 got the coals and bread and allotment. All this was no use, it only 

 made folks like a spiteful donkey at a hedge, — be as sharp as you 

 will about him, there's his heels ready for you. Some labourers got 

 discharged because they would go to meeting, and that made mar- 

 tyrs of them, but a poor kind; for if it hadn't been for the notice 

 they got, and being made something of, they'd soon have gone to 

 church again of their own accord. Two things I noticed, and I've 

 always found it the same every where : 



*' When the parson goes much to the Hall, 

 The poor parishioners go to the wall ; 

 And when a labourer's made a deacon, 

 It always spoils his stomach for bacon." 



A word or two more, and I've done about this matter. If the 

 Church-of-England ministers would only save seed more carefully, 

 and sow it more industriously, they'd see a deal better crops ; and if 



