WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. IO3 



eeedingly ingenious ; and their general observa- 

 tions on other subjects were excellent in their 

 way, and could hardly have been better if they 

 had been made by the job. The work dragged 

 a little, as it is apt to do by the hour. The 

 plumbers had occasion to make me several visits. 

 Sometimes they would find, upon arrival, that 

 they had forgotten some indispensable tool ; and 

 one would go back to the shop, a mile and a 

 half, after it ; and his comrade would await his 

 return with the most exemplary patience, and 

 sit down and talk, always by the hour. I do 

 not know but it is a habit to have something 

 wanted at the shop. They seemed to me very 

 good workmen, and always willing to stop and 

 talk about the job, or anything else, when I went 

 near them. Nor had they any of that impetuous 

 hurry that is said to be the bane of our Ameri- 

 can civilization. To their credit be it said, that 

 I never observed anything of it in them. They 



