256 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



the doctor gives his decision and some native woman, 

 agreeable to Amos's taste, can be found to look after 

 the interesting yet aggravating crank. 



But this is not all. Amos declines to allow Larry 

 to lodge in the house for another night, attributing 

 the ducking to him, in spite of the fact that he was at 

 least six miles away. In this both Bart and I think 

 Amos right, for Larry's eye had a most inquiring ex- 

 pression on his return, and I detected him slipping 

 into the old barn at the first opportunity to see if the 

 tank was empty, while Bart says that he has been 

 talking to himself in a gleeful mood all the morning, 

 and so he has decided that, as Larry has worked long 

 enough to justify it, he will buy him a prepaid passage 

 home to his daughter and see him off personally by 

 to-morrow's steamer. As Amos will have none of 

 Larry, to send the man into village lodgings would prob- 

 ably hasten his downfall. I did hope to keep him 

 until autumn, for he has taught me not a little garden- 

 ing in a genial and irresponsible sort of way, and the 

 rose garden is laid out in a manner that would do 

 credit to a trained man, Larry having the rare com- 

 bination of seeing a straight line and yet being able 

 to turn a graceful curve. But even if Amos had been 

 willing to allow him to sleep over one of his attacks, 



