THE RED ROCKERY 195 



I may be pardoned for claiming my lost child again 

 and placing him, for protection, within the covers of 

 his parent's book. Did a section on vegetables occur, 

 he would belong to that, but, since the scope of this 

 work precludes such a thing, the tale may creep in 

 here. 



It has to do simply with salads and a station-master, 

 and it is the sort of nonsense we write when we are 

 young and irresponsible, without any literary char- 

 acter to lose. 



He was a serious-minded man ; his name was 

 Jinks ; and he lorded it over a little station on the 

 South-Eastern Railway in Kent. There he did 

 immense good, converting engine-drivers and guards, 

 and even bringing an occasional director to see his 

 many faults. He had a strip of garden which ran along 

 near the main line, and he employed it to proclaim 

 and publish great moral truths, so that the thoughtless 

 might be improved and the thoughtful edified as they 

 rolled by. In the early part of the year one would 

 always look for virtuous maxims from that garden, 

 and lofty ideas. During a certain April I recollect 

 Jinks had " Little children, love one another " worked 

 out in cos lettice ; while the following year he 

 arranged " Watch and pray " in spring onions ; and 

 very beautiful and affecting it was. At my sugges- 

 tion he did " Patience is a virtue " with a scheme of 

 beetroot, and not only did it look well, but was 

 considered a very proper precept to impress upon 

 travellers by that lethargic line. 



Jinks told me in confidence one winter that he 



