Too Muck of a Good Tking 2 1 7 



chorus of mellow song : he began to make a list 

 of all the birds that visited his garden, to take 

 notes of the food they seemed to love, and to 

 record the dates of their nest-building, egg- 

 laying, and hatching. His eyes were daily 

 feasting on the apple-blossoms and lilacs, and 

 there was promise of a full harvest of fruit on 

 espaliers, standards, and garden- walls. The 

 rowans were gay with heavy bunches of white 

 flowers, which promised a glorious show of 

 orange-red berries for August 



Joseph Bates had long ago given up engaging 

 his master in conversation, and maintained in 

 the garden an air of silent wisdom which quite 

 baffled the Poet's advances ; but in the village, 

 when asked by his friends about his employer, 

 he would touch his forehead significantly, as 

 implying that the good man was "weak in the 

 upper storey." 



Bessie's careful mind was already providing 

 for the fruit-harvest ; a huge cooking- vessel wti 

 procured, and scores of dean white jam-pots 

 graced the larder shelves. The Poet wrote to 

 a congenial friend, an ardent member of the 



