Too Mtuk of a Good Thing 213 



ways offended you ; but may be you bcn't 

 quite accustomed to our country ways. You 

 see, Sir, a garden's a garden down our way : 

 we grows fruit and vegetables in it for to eat 

 If the birds was to be master here, '(wouldn't 

 be no mortal manner of use our growing of 'em. 

 Now I've heard tell as there's gardens in London 

 with nothing but wild animals in 'cm, and maybe 

 folks there understands the thing different to 

 what we does," 



The Poet was inclined to think he was being 

 made a fool of: this mild and worthy old man 

 was quite too much for him. But he swallowed 

 his temper and made an appeal to Joseph's better 

 feelings. 



" Bates," he said, in that gentle pathetic cone 

 that his friends knew so well, " if you had lived 

 in London for thirty years you would love to 

 have the birds about you. Don't people down 

 here like to hear them sing? Don't you fed 

 a better man when you listen to a blackbird at 

 dawn, as I did this morning?" 



" Bless your heart. Sir," answered Joseph, be- 

 ginning to understand the situation. "I tares 



