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It is true there is spring on the terrace, but even so it is spring imported from the town spring bought in Holborn, spring delivered free by parcel post; for where would the terrace have been but for the city seedsman that magician who sends you strangely spotted beans and mysterious bulbs in shrivelled cerements, weird little flower-mummies that suggest centuries of forgotten silence in painted Egyptian tombs.
The Peas burst from the Pod, it is true; but they fell, not into the south border, but into the hand of the seedsman to whom the garden belonged. "This is an adventure," said the brothers. They were put with a lot of other Sweet-peas, and a brown paper bag was ready to receive them. "Any way we are together," said they. But at that moment one of the brothers rolled from the bag on the floor.
The seedsman looked out all the seeds that Maurice wanted, and packed them up in paper: he was folding up some painted lady-peas, when, from a door at the back of the shop, there came in a square, rough-faced man, who exclaimed, the moment he came in, "Are the seeds I ordered ready? The wind's fair they ought to have been aboard yesterday.
For their benefit, therefore, the following paragraphs are given. Besides the gratification that always accompanies the growing of plants, there is in plant breeding the promise that the progeny will in some way be better than the parent, and there is the certainty that when a stable variety of undoubted merit has been produced it can be sold to an enterprising seedsman for general distribution.
First, of course, the modern farmer paid his landlord ; next he paid the seedsman ; then the manure manufacturer ; the implement manufacturer ; the auctioneer ; the railroad, for transit ; the banker, for short loans ; the lawyer or whoever advanced half his original capital ; the schoolmaster .
Year after year we visit the seedsman, and read the labels on his drawers and packages, and bear home and plant in our gardens the little homely germs that keep God's law so well; and summer rewards our trust in them with beautiful flowers, and autumn with bountiful fruition. Robins sang the same song to the Pilgrim Fathers that they sing to us.
And my china jar, is it packed up and directed? where is it?" "It is up there on the shelf over your head, sir," answered the seedsman. "It is very safe, you see; but we have not had time to pack it yet. It shall be done to-day; and we will get the seeds ready for you, sir, immediately." "Immediately! then stir about it. The seeds will not pack themselves up. Make haste, pray."
Knowledge is well worth a few beans. Among other things, knowledge tells us: "The seedsman need not go to the expense of waging war upon the weevil. When the peas arrive in the granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not transmissible. The untouched peas have nothing to fear from the neighborhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture is left.
Oliver, whose dulness as a schoolboy gave no promise of future achievements, was now learning the business of a seedsman; his brother felt ashamed when he saw him at work in the shop, and had small patience with the comrades to whom Oliver dedicated his leisure. Charlotte was estranged by religious differences. Only for his mother did the young man show increased consideration.
Knowledge is well worth a few beans. Among other things, knowledge tells us: "The seedsman need not go to the expense of waging war upon the weevil. When the peas arrive in the granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not transmissible. The untouched peas have nothing to fear from the neighbourhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture is left.
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