The Garden in Mid-Winter 



an English gardener, but there is the difficulty 

 of the language to be considered ; and English- 

 men of that class too frequently develop an 

 abnormal thirst in this climate when left to 

 themselves. 



But though they have little knowledge of 

 their craft, being ignorant even of the names 

 of all but the commonest flowers, they are as 

 a rule pleasant fellows to work with, willing 

 and eager to oblige. Our first head gardener, 

 Manoel, might with education have gone far ; 

 in middle life he had taught himself to read 

 and write not only Portuguese but English. 

 Miss Dowie has told us that all the gardeners 

 she has met are "blighted carpenters." Manoel 

 was a blighted politician, foreign politics being 

 his speciality. He was intensely interested in 

 the Russo-Japanese war, and could give you a 

 full estimate of the land and sea forces of either 

 nation. Like almost all the Portuguese, gentle 

 and simple, he took the Russian side, being 

 influenced by a consideration which rather 

 strangely carried no weight in England — that 

 the Russians were Christians, and the Japanese 

 not. To them this war was but another phase 

 of the eternal struggle between Christendom 



69 



