78 A MODEST MAN, AND 



thing and then another about, and, looking 

 at the orange-trees, which wanted new tubs, 

 said he, " These are doing badly ; let me re- 

 commend you to get a little more Icarbonic 

 hacid gas into your soil, and you'll find it 

 wonderfully venerate 'em." " Well," said I, 

 " I have heard as much ; but 'tisn't easy to 

 get it in a country place like this ; perhaps 

 you'll be so good as to send me a little par- 

 cel down by the wagon from London that 

 passes by ;" and I pulled out half-a-crown. 

 JBut he said he was sure it would not be 

 more than a shilling, and he would not for- 

 get it. He was going, till I said, "This 

 way," and took him through a door into the 

 new houses, a large range all heated with 

 hot water: one for stove and greenhouse 

 plants, one a fine grape-house, with divisions 

 for succession crops, and another with peaches 

 and figs ; then, again, pits for cucumbers and 

 melons, and one for mushrooms. Though I 

 say it myself, they were a credit to us, if 

 nothing to boast of; and he thought so too, 

 for his eye caught mine, and there was some- 

 thing in it that stopped his tongue ; and 

 when I began to ask him a few questions 

 how he did this and did that, he was all 



