It was rumoured that a gentleman of pro-Boer proclivities proposed to address like-minded citizens in the "Corn Hall." I fear he must have had but a small following if, as I believe, the majority of the natives were of like mind with my usually philosophic gardener. "I’d warm ’im," Williams exclaimed, digging his spade into the ground as though the offending propagandist were underneath—"I’d warm ’im. I’d knock ’is ugly ’ead off before ’e’d come ’is nasty Boerses over me. Let ’im go to St. ’Elena and _mind_ ’em; then ’e’d know. ’Tain’t no use for ’im to come and gibber to the loikes of us ’as ’ave ’eard their goin’s-on from them as ’ave fought agen ’em, and minded ’em day by day and hour by hour, till they was that sick and weary! ... Boers! I’d Boers ’im," and with grunts and snorts expressive of intense indignation the philosopher rested on his spade, glaring at me as though I were a champion of the King’s enemies—which Heaven forbid. "It’s like this ’ere," he said, after a moment’s pause: "there’s toimes w’en the meek-’eartidest ain’t safe if you worrits ’em, and these ’ere be them sart of toimes." When he became gardener to friends of mine, he was old and they were young. His progress was slow and dignified, so were his manners. He could wither a budding enthusiasm with a slow smile charged full of scorn as effectually as a May frost withers the peach blossom. His own omniscience was emphasised in such fashion as to make his employers acutely conscious of their youth and ignorance. It is true that his master was not so excessively young, but then neither was he particularly well instructed in matters horticultural, and Williams had but a poor opinion of a man who, while he could tell you the long Latin name of every grass in the field and every weed in the hedgerow, had but small appreciation of carpet bedding, and had been heard to remark that a cabbage moth was really much prettier than a cabbage. Moreover, the said master extended his liking for moths and butterflies to other "hinsekses" of various and inferior sorts, and collected the same in small glass tubes, of which he carried numbers in his pockets. When a man is addicted to such "curus fads" as these, it is not to be expected that an elderly and experienced gardener should so much as consult him about things connected with his own craft. Towards his mistress Williams showed an indulgent toleration; not that he ever did what she asked him—oh dear, no! But still he permitted her to "come anigh him," and shout her behests into his ear. He was decidedly deaf at the best of times, and when suggestions were made of which he disapproved his infirmity increased ten-fold.