“Yes,” replied the Vicar, “I dare say they would, but then the punishment would fall upon your parents instead of on yourselves. Can you think of nothing else?” “Please Sir, could we not grow some potatoes somewhere, and then sell them?” said Charley Salt timidly. “Come Charley,” replied Mr. Warlingham, “your’s is the best hit that has been made.” Charley blushed with pleasure. “But where are you to grow your potatoes?” “Could we grow them on the Common, Sir?” “Why, even if you could, there would be such a deal of trenching, and fencing, that half your profits would be swallowed up. Suppose now, that I were to ask the Clerk to let you one of his gardens, (you know the Clerk’s land is divided into small gardens) would you do your best to bring it into good cultivation?” The boys assured the Vicar they would gladly do so. “Well,” said the Vicar, “I think that old William Hopkins who died last week, had one of these gardens, so that perhaps his may be still on hire, indeed, I feel sure that it is. Mr. Dilwyn, be good enough to engage it for the use of the school. I will make myself answerable for the rent. You see, Boys, that I am ready to give you every encouragement to do right. And now,” he continued, “I advise you to get somebody to direct and advise you how the ground may be turned to the best account. Who is the best gardener in Yateshull?” There could be no doubt about that. Every boy was ready to admit that nobody’s garden looked so well at all seasons as Jasper Crabbe’s: however old and ruinous his house might be, his garden was quite a pattern. “Then if I were you,” observed Mr. Warlingham, “I would go and ask Jasper Crabbe to help you. He knows what your misfortune has been, and I am sure he will be glad to see you trying to make up poor Dinah’s loss. He is rather rough in his manner, but I know him to be very kind-hearted, and I am sure he will be pleased to see you put confidence in him, and that you wish to make a friend of him, in spite of your former bad behaviour to him.” * * * * * In the course of the day it was all arranged. The Clerk had let ten roods of garden ground to the school, Jasper Crabbe had undertaken to direct the boys as to its cultivation, and Dinah Marjoram had received five pounds from the Vicar: it would have been a great help if she could have raised the remaining five pounds at once, she said, but she must do the best she could. When the Vicar heard this, he went and consulted the Churchwardens, and then it was agreed to advance Dinah Marjoram five pounds out of the Alms collected in Church at the Offertory, with the understanding that the sum should be paid back out of the profits of the school garden.