OCTOBER. 231 



bear the sight of it. Things never looked worse than tliey did this 

 evening ; for I thought of my home, and my sick boy, and my quite 

 empty pocket. Wliy I did it I can't tell, but I took the left-hand 

 path this time, and struck up to the side of the j)lantation that 

 looked right down on the cottage. It was empty, for the man that 

 got my place Avas gone ; and the clergyman, when he told us he 

 was going away, once when he came to see our sick boy, said that 

 the squire had told him he'd engaged another, and that before I 

 could have asked him to take me on again. I sat down, as much 

 out of sight in the hedge of the plantation as I could ; the workmen 

 were all gone home, and the windows were open to let the paint 

 dry, for it was being done uj) all through. The ro?es, honeysuckle, 

 and the jasmine, that 1 had planted, were all unnailed and laid down 

 for them to nail fresh bark u])on the uprights and over the })orchway. 

 I felt as if my heart would burst as I looked at it and the garden 

 beyond, and I stopped and stopped, for the more I remembered my 

 home there, the more I dreaded going to the one in the village. 



I don't know how long I'd been there, when I heard a rustling, 

 and directly after out came the squire's favourite retriever, and he 

 just behind him, out of a little gate to a private path through the 

 plantation. He saw me in a minute as I jumped up, and said, " Is 

 that you, Gregory.^" I tried to lift my hat; but whether my sad 

 thoughts had made my forehead swell, or Mhat it was, I couldn't 

 move it, and I turned my head away, for I didn't want him to see 

 all my face would have shewn him, for I'd been thinking he might 

 as well have given me the place again as have taken on a stranger ; 

 and I thought, too, he might as well have let me earn the little 

 things his lady often sent to my wife ; for they were very kind, and 

 gave us many little nice things for the sick children we couldn't 

 have bought. 



When I got in, I found the boy better, and the young ladies and 

 their governess had been to the cottage, and somehow cheered up 

 my wife ; for when I told her I had an empty pocket, she tried to 

 cheer me up too, and said, " Why, Gregory, never mind ; if 'tis 

 winter with us now, spring '11 come by and by. You never knew 

 the longest night without a morning ; if we've care now, comfort '11 

 come in time; so let's hope on." It did me good to hear her; but 

 afterwards I laid it to her having had a present of a new warm shawl 

 and stout pair of shoes, which the young ladies' governess had given 

 her ; and about her I'll have a word to say before I've done, for I've 

 learnt a little about other people beside gardeners, though I've been 

 one all my life. 



Though I've told all my troubles, I wouldn't have young gar- 

 deners think I was a chicken-hearted, snivelling kind of fellow ; 

 through 'em all I walked stiff and upright ; I never put my nose 

 in another man's pot, and never begged a favour of a living soul. 

 Pinched as I was, nobody knew it but my partner; and badly as 

 we were off, all was as tidy as a new pin ; she'd have no rags nor 

 dirt, no reminding me what we once had l)ecn, and what I'd lost; 

 and if our sick children hadn't kept her at home, she'd never have 



