roductions
of nature require their native soils as a condition of existence."

"Yes, indeed," said Dalton, fathering the sentiment at once; "'tis only
the blacks that can't bear the cowld. But, after all, maybe they 're not
the same as ourselves."

"I own I never could think them so," smiled Mrs. Rick-etts, as though
the very appearance of Peter Dalton had confirmed the prejudice.

"Faix! I'm glad to hear you say that," said he, delightedly. "Tis many's
the battle Nelly and me has about that very thing. There's the villa,
now--what d' ye think of it?"

"Charming--beautiful--a paradise!"

"Quite a paradise!" echoed Martha.

"'T is a mighty expensive paradise, let me tell you," broke in Peter.
"I've a gardener, and four chaps under him, and sorrow a thing I ever
see them do but cut nosegays and stick little bits of wood in the
ground, with hard names writ on them; that's what they call gardening
here. As for a spade or a hoe, there's not one in the country; they do
everything with a case-knife and watering-pot."

"You amaze me," said Mrs. Ricketts, who was determined on being
instructed in horticulture.

"There's a fellow now, with a bundle of moss-roses for Nelly, and
there's another putting out the parrot's cage under a tree,----that's
the day's work for both of them."

"Are you not happy to think how your ample means diffuse ease and
enjoyment on all round you? Don't tell me that the pleasure you feel is
not perfect ecstasy."

"That's one way of considering it," said Dalton, dubiously, for he was
not quite sure whether he could or could not yield his concurrence.

"But if people did n't la-la-la--"

"Lay abed, you mean," cried Dalton; "that's just what they do; a German
wouldn't ask to awake at all, if it wasn't to light his pipe."

"I meant la-la-labor; if they did n't la-labor the ground, we should all
be starved."

"No political economy, Scroope," cried Mrs. Ricketts; "I will not permit
it. That dreadful science is a passion with him, Mr. Dal ton."

"Is it?" said Peter, confusedly, to whose ears the word "economy" only
suggested notions of saving and sparing. "I can only say," added he,
after a pause, "tastes differ, and I never could abide it at all."

"I was certain of it," resumed Mrs. Ricketts; "but here comes a young
lady towards us,--Miss Dalton, I feel it must be."

The surmise was quite correct. It was Nelly, who, in expectation of
meeting her father, had walked down from the house, and