WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 173 



wander away, and never be seen more. It 

 seemed to me a very simple thing, this garden- 

 ing ; but it opens up astonishingly. It is like 

 the infinite possibilities in worsted-work. Polly 

 sometimes says to me, " I wish you would call 

 at Bobbin's, and match that skein of worsted for 

 me when you are in town." Time was I used 

 to accept such a commission with alacrity and 

 self-confidence. I went to Bobbin's, and asked 

 one of his young men, -with easy indifference, to 

 give me some of that. The young man, who is 

 as handsome a young man as ever I looked at, 

 and who appears to own the shop, and whose 

 suave superciliousness would be worth every- 

 thing to a cabinet minister who wanted to 

 repel applicants for place, says, " I have n't an 

 ounce : I have sent to Paris, and I expect it 

 every day. I have a good deal of difficulty in 

 getting that shade in my assortment." To think 

 that he is in communication with Paris, and 



