I GO TO WORK IN GOOD EARNEST. 21 



better light to get the plants cleaned ; and a 

 pretty job it was to get the scale off and the 

 fly killed. It was long since they'd smelt 

 tobacco. I had a foreman, two men, and a 

 boy ; and a good set they were, only at first 

 humdrum and sleepy, like him that was 

 gone before me. After the plants were got 

 in as good order as they could be, a few 

 lumps of lime slacked in water served to 

 whiten the wall and flue; and a sponge, 

 brush, and mop altered the inside of the 

 paint-work as much as the out. When we 

 had finished, my foreman said, " I would 

 not have believed it." We did just the 

 same with the vineries ; and when they 

 were finished, I made my men clean them- 

 selves ; for I always say, that a gardener 

 that does not keep his body and clothes 

 clean is a dirty gardener with his plants; 

 and if I was a gentleman, I'd have nobody 

 about me that neither pleased eyes nor nose. 

 I had a comfortable pretty little cottage 

 on the premises, and that's where a gar- 

 dener should be. One nice room opened on 

 to the garden, and that was fitted up for my 

 master and the ladies. An elderly woman 

 did for me and the boy, who slept in the cot- 



c 



