246 MY FARM. 



Knowing too Much. 



I SOMETIMES see in the papers, advertisements 

 of gardeners, who can be seen at Thorburn's, 

 in John street, on stated mornings, when they hold 

 their levee, who insist upon ' entire control.' A 

 modest man, going among them, and entreating the 

 services of one at forty dollars a month, and ' boord,' 

 feels very much as if he were hiring himself to him 

 in some subordinate capacity, with the privilege of 

 occasionally sniffing the perfume through the open 

 doors of the green-house. There may be those 

 country-lovers who enjoy this state of dependence 

 upon the superior authority of a gardener ; but I do 

 not care to be counted among them. I have too large 



an acquaintance among the sufferers. M , an 



amiable gentleman, and a friend of mine, and an ex- 

 treme lover of flowers, dared no more to pick a rose 

 without permission of ' Wallace,' than he dares to 

 be caught reading an unpopular journal. ' Wallace ' 

 is instructed ; but in the assertion of his authority, 

 impudent. And when at last my friend summoned 

 resolution to dismiss him, there came a dray to the 

 back-entrance, which was presently loaded down 

 with the private cuttings and perquisites of the ac- 

 complished gardener. 



