I2O 



MARCH 3, 1900 



good old Cuttle is leaving us; will be 

 gone by this time next week, and I feel 

 more sorry than seems quite reasonable ! To-day, 

 when we began talking the matter over together, 

 a suspicious huskiness in my voice warned me 

 that I should do well to get away from the sub- 

 ject before my character for propriety was quite 

 lost! 



It is better I know for many reasons that he 

 should leave. He cannot, indeed will not, un- 

 dertake sole charge of both flower and kitchen 

 garden, and to have anyone over him in either 

 department is not to be dreamed of. Moreover 

 his own home is four miles away, all up and down 

 a long crooked lane, and a walk like that after a 

 hard day's work would be enough to try anyone 

 half his age. Under ordinary circumstances the 

 departure of a man who, though he has been with 

 us now nearly three years, came at first as a mere 

 jobber, would be a small affair on either side. 

 Our poor old Cuttle is however so identified with 



