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Updated: October 14, 2025
But why did you leave Mr Brownsmith?" "I left Old Brownsmith because I wanted to leave him." "Did you have a quarrel, Ike?" "Quarrel? No! What should I want to quarrel for?" "But why did you leave?" "'Cause I liked. Man ain't a slave, is he?" "I am glad you're here, though, Ike," I cried. "Not you," he said sourly, as he thrust and chopped and levelled the soil. "Indeed but I am," I cried.
"I sha'n't," I cried angrily. "Come down, you thief." "If you call me a thief I'll come down and half smash you. Let go!" His courage returned as he found out who was his captor, and he kicked out savagely, but I held on. "Do you hear?" he cried. "Here, let go, and I'll give you a fourpenny piece out of my next pocket-money." "You come down to Mr Brownsmith," I cried. "Get out!
"I was thinking about what Mrs Brownsmith said," I replied. "Oh yes! To be sure," he continued. "You'll like her. She's a very nice woman. A very good woman. I've known her thirty years." "Have you had any children, sir?" I said. "No," he replied, looking at me with a twinkle in his eye; "and yet I've always been looking after nurseries all my life."
I began to understand now why Old Brownsmith had arranged with his brother for me to come; and, full of visions of the future and of how I was going to learn how to grow fruit in this perfection, I stopped, gazing here and there at the ripe and ripening peaches, that looked so beautiful that I thought it would be a sin for them to be picked.
"Never mind the baskets of flowers," said Old Brownsmith warmly; "has it hurt you?" "I don't know; not much," I said quickly. "But won't it be a great deal of trouble and expense?" He smiled, and patted my shoulder. "Never mind that," he said good-humouredly. "All people who keep horses and carts, and blundering obstinate fellows for servants, have accidents to contend against.
I would have given that sixpence for the right to climb that pear-tree, and I gave vent to a sigh as I saw the figure of old Brownsmith coming towards me, looking much more stern and sharp than he did at a distance, and with his side pockets bulging enormously. "Hallo, young shaver! what's your business?" he said, in a quick authoritative way, as we drew near to each other.
"No, no, she's 'bout right," growled Ike to himself. "You had better put another barge on in front. Lay it flat," cried Old Brownsmith, whose eye was educated by years of experience, and I stood back behind the cart, listening curiously to the conversation. "Yes, you're too heavy behind." "No, no, she's 'bout right, master," growled Ike, "right as can be. Just you look here."
Mr Solomon heard it, but he said nothing as we went on, while I felt very low-spirited again, and was thinking whether I had not better give up learning how to grow fruit and go back to Old Brownsmith, and Ike, and Shock, and Mrs Dodley, when my new guide said to me kindly: "Don't you take any notice of them, my lad." "Them?" I said in dismay. "Yes, there's a pair of 'em nice pair too.
"He shall not think that," my mother said; and for the next week or two she went across for a short time every day, while I walked beside her, for her to lean upon my shoulder, and to carry the folding seat so that she might sit down from time to time. Upon these occasions I never saw Shock, and old Brownsmith never came near us.
At the first the marauding party thought it was some trick of a companion; directly after they scattered and ran, under the impression that Old Brownsmith and all his men were in pursuit.
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