ld me that you and he had
quarrelled, and I gathered that you rather disapproved of him. Well, he
was a bit of a blackguard; but, after all, one doesn't expect a man
who takes on a job of that kind to be anything else. I never thought
it would suit you, and you will do me the justice of remembering that I
never wanted you to volunteer. Now about your article. It was admirable.
These "Cheap Patriots"'--it was thus the article was headed--'are just
the creatures we want to scarify. Dowling and his kind are the worst
enemies Ireland has to-day. We'll publish anything of that kind you send
us, and remember we're not the least afraid of anybody. It's a grand
thing for a paper to be as impecunious as the _Croppy_. No man but
a fool would take a libel action against us with any hope of getting
damages. A jury might value Dowling's character at any fantastic sum
they chose, but it would be a poor penny the _Croppy_ would pay. Still,
we're not so hard up that we can't give our contributors something,
and next week you'll get a small cheque from the office. I hope it may
encourage you to send us more. Don't be afraid to speak out. If anything
peculiarly seditious occurs to you, write it in Irish. I know it's all
the same to you which language you write in. Do us half a column every
fortnight or so on Western life and politics.'

Hyacinth was absurdly elated by Miss Goold's praise. He made up his
mind to contribute regularly to the _Croppy_, and had visions of a great
future as a journalist, or perhaps a literary exponent of the ideas of
Independent Ireland.

Meanwhile, he became very intimate both with the Quinns and with Canon
Beecher's family. Mrs. Quinn was an enthusiastic gardener, and early in
the spring Hyacinth helped her with her flowerbeds. He learnt to plait
the foliage of faded crocuses, and pin them tidily to the ground with
little wooden forks. He gathered suitable earth for the boxes in which
begonias made their earliest sprout-ings, and learned to know the
daffodils and tulips by their names. Later on he helped Mr. Quinn to mow
the grass and mix a potent weed-killer for the gravel walks. There came
to be an understanding that, whenever he was not absent on a journey, he
spent the latter part of the afternoon and the evening with the Quinns.
As the days lengthened the family tea was pushed back to later and later
hours to give more time out of doors.

There is something about the very occupation of gardening which