8 AUTOBIOGBAPHY AND 



apology for not having warned me of what I would 

 see in that Hotel du Liable. Notwithstanding his 

 living in such atmosphere that man was an honest 

 man, for it was on his recommendations, etc., that no- 

 thing bad had happened to me. I slept three nights 

 there. In the day time I ran through the city to deliver 

 some letters of recommendation, etc. During those 

 three evenings and nights I learned more than I did 

 thereafter in ten years. 



The same day I left that vestibule of hell I went to 

 take possession of a situation as an assistant gardener 

 in one of the most aristocratic suburbs of Paris, with 

 a different breed of philosophers. There I was some- 

 what in my dreamed-for element. Many green and 

 hothouses full of rare plants ; few of them I knew, 

 except the names of some ; but I could not apply the 

 names to the plants, and when I attempted to ask the 

 names of the head gardener a sort of biped bear! 

 he answered me : " You had better to mind your work, 

 for if you have any ambition to be a gentleman's gar- 

 dener you will do better to learn forcing vegetables," 

 etc., etc. To that hint I replied that I thought it 

 would be better to work for the people who carried on 

 that business, and as I was among plants I wished to 

 know something about them; that gentlemen who 

 wanted forced vegetables wanted also plants, etc. He 



