48 



"Just going to pot 'em. This is the stuff, clean fine 

 and rich as butter." Another dive, another, and 

 then a good slapping together of his hands, to shake off 

 the soil. Hastily brushing a seat with his apron, he offered 

 it to me, saying : 



" Take a seat, and you shall see the whole thing in a 



jiffy-" 



Thanking him, I sat down, not quite at my ease, how- 

 ever, in such a scene. 



"Now, if you watch me, ye'll learn by seeing in half 

 the time I'd be telling ye." 



So saying, he took up a clean new flower-pot, and, tak- 

 ing from a box near by a handful of broken pots pounded 

 up fine, he threw it into the pot, filling it about an inch 

 deep. He then filled the pot nearly full of soil from the 

 heap. Taking a bulb from a basket and holding it upright 

 with one hand in the soil in the pot, he filled up the re- 

 mainder of the pot with the other hand. Giving the pot 

 a gentle rap on the bench, he set it on one side ; going 

 through the same operation, he next finished another. 

 Quickening his motions, he began to do them very fast. 

 Becoming interested in the ease and rapidity with which 

 he worked, I left my seat, and came and stood close to the 

 bench. Soon the rows of pots grew to a goodly size, 

 and the busy workman stopped, and said : 



" There, ye see the whole story so far. After they have 

 been watered the man will plunge them, up to the rim of 



