10 THE CARNATION. 



Ill the early stage of his fancy, Kit, upon 

 mature reflection., once concluded, that neat and 

 genuine horse-dung, divested of all extraneous straw; 

 must be better than much straw and little dung, as 

 are usually put together. The resolution once taken, 

 he hastened to the shop of a neighbouring black- 

 Smith, and agreed for all the droppings that the 

 horses, which came to be shod, should make in a 

 twelvemonth, with all the parings of the hoof to 

 boot. He amassed above two loads of this dung, 

 and after it had become rotten, he mixed it up with 

 the mould for his flowers in every way ; he made 

 use of it for Pinks and Carnations, both in pots and 

 in beds. His expectations for a fine bloom that 

 summer were raised to the highest pitch, and yet 

 ended in disappointment : his plants, towards Mid- 

 summer, began to look yellowish and sickly, and 

 turn cankery about, the roots ; his bloom, too, was 

 very indifferent ; and what could be the cause'? 

 His loam, he was sure, was sweet and good, and his 

 dung was nothing but dung. He layered the plants : 

 the layers also turned sickly, and several of them 



