Be off, you dirty
baggage, or I won't answer for it now!"
"Oh, you are too kind, Mr. Swipes; I am sure you are too gentle, to
forgive me, like of that! And the little list I made of the flowers
in your garden, I shall put it in a teapot till the Quality wants
something."
Mr. Swipes gave a start, and his over-watered eyes could not meet those
of Mary, which were mildly set upon them. "List!" he muttered--"little
list! What do you please to mean, Miss?"
"Well, the 'dirty baggage' means nothing unparalleled, sir, but just the
same as anybody else might do. Some people calls it a Inventionary, and
some an Emmarandum, and some a Catalogue. It don't interfere with you,
Mr. Swipes; only the next time as Miss Dolly asks, the same as she was
doing the other day--"
"Oh, she was, was she? The little -----!" Mr. Swipes used a word
concerning that young lady which would have insured his immediate
discharge, together with one from the Admiral's best toe. "And pray,
what was her observations, ma'am?"
"It was Charles told me, for he was waiting at dinner. Seems that the
turnip was not to her liking, though I picked out the very best of what
few you sent in, so she looks up from her plate, and she says: 'Well, I
cannot understand it! To me it is the greatest mistress in the world,'
she says, 'that we never can get a bit of vegetable fit for eating.
We've got,' she says, 'a kitchen-garden close upon two acres, and a man
who calls himself head gardener, by the name of Swipes'--my pardoning
to you, Mr.
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