Captain Barker's factotum, Narcissus Swiggs by name, was a slow man
with but a single eye. His orbit in gardening was that of the four
seasons, but he had the misfortune to lag behind them by the space of
three months; while the two sides of the gravel path, though each
would be harmonious in itself, could only be enjoyed by shutting one
eye as you advanced from the blue gate to the blue front-door.
The particular pride of Captain Barker's garden, however, was a
collection of figure-heads set up like statues at regular intervals
around the hedge. The like of it could be found nowhere.
Here, against a background of green, and hanging forward over a green
lawn, were an Indian Chief, a Golden Hind, a Triton, a Centaur, an
effigy of King Charles I., another of Britannia, a third of the god
Pan, and a fourth of Mr. John Phillipson, sometime alderman and
shipowner of Harwich. Though rudely modelled, the majority received
an extremely lifelike appearance from their colouring, which was
renewed every now and then under the Captain's own supervision.
He asserted them to be beautiful, and his acquaintances were content
with the qualification that to an unwarned visitor, in an uncertain
light, they might be disconcerting.
To this paradise Captain Barker introduced his newly adopted son,
with the wet-nurse that the Doctor had found for him: and after
explaining matters to Narcissus--who had heard of the _Wasp's_
arrival in port and had been vaguely troubled by a long conversation
with Simeon, next door--installed the new-comers in the two rooms
under the roof of the pavilion and sat down to meditate and wait for
the child's development.
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