32 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



" You think it a poor list, then ? " says he. 



" I beg your pardon ; it's a most capital one ; 

 there are the newest things of every sort in it ; and 

 if you cultivate them as they ought to be cultivated, 

 you'll make a fine show ; they'll elect you member of 

 a Horticultural Society ; heaven only knows but 

 they'll name you on a tasting committee." 



" That would be jolly," says he. 



"And you'll need plenty of bass-matting, and 

 patent labels, and lead wire, and a box of grafting 

 instruments, and brass syringes of different capacities, 

 and gauze netting for some of your more delicate 

 fruits, and porcelain saucers to float your big goose- 

 berries in, and forcing beds, and guano tanks, and a 

 small propagating house, and a padlock on your 

 garden, and a Scotchman to keep the key at seventy 

 dollars a month, and a fag to work the compost-heaps 

 at forty-five more." 



" The devil I will ! " he says. 



" Don't be profane," I should say, " or if you 

 needs must, you'll have better occasion for it when 

 you get fairly into the traces." 



And then more seriously " My dear fellow, the 

 list, as I have said, is a capital one ; but it supposes 

 most careful culture, extreme attention, and a love 

 for all the niceties of the art which you have not. 

 You want to take things easv ; you don't want to 



