It may be that in deciding to make him a gardener we have been
mistaken. That book will enlighten us."
"There's one blessing," said Captain Barker, tucking the book under
his arm; "whatever pursuit the boy may follow, he'll want to follow
it unmolested. And therefore, in any case, I must teach him to use
the small-sword."
During the first few months, almost every entry in the Captain's
green volume dealt with Tristram's appetite. Nor did this fluctuate
enough to make the record exciting. He was a slow, phlegmatic
infant, with red cheeks and an exuberant crop of yellow curls.
He slept all night and a good third of the day, and, beyond cutting
ten teeth in as many months, exhibited no precocity. Nothing
troubled him, if we except an insatiable hunger. He was weaned with
extreme difficulty, and even when promoted to bread and biscuits and
milk puddings, continued to recognise his nurse's past service and
reward it with so sincere an affection that the woman accepted an
increase of wage and cheerfully consented to stay on and take care of
him.
Captain Barker saw nothing in all this to shake his first resolution
of making the boy a gardener, but rather found in each successive day
a reason the more for making haste to learn something about
horticulture himself, in order that when the time came he might be
able to teach it.
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