The Master again looked up and down, and I could see he was again regretting the autumn.
"If you won't wait it must be done," he said at last. "Have this border thoroughly well turned over, two feet deep at the least, and work in some of that savoury heap I saw in your little yard. You will find a good deal of root to cut away from those trees; they take the food from this border, but that can't be helped now. Then clear out the weeds and those terrible marigolds I see springing up everywhere, and those poppy seedlings. I think your new friends will have a better chance when that is done."
"And the plants that are to stay, may they be touched?"
"You _must_ touch them, but do a piece at a time, and lift them in and out with a good ball of earth round the roots so as to disturb them as little as possible. Press them well in afterwards and water."
"Should Griggs put some of the savoury heap just round their roots?"
"No, no, let the whole border have a dressing. Later on any special plant may be mulched if it is needed."
"Mulched!" said the Young Man, turning to me. "Do you know what that is?"
"Something to do with manure, I believe, but I don't know what."
"Griggs will show you," laughed the Master.
"No, he has his own vocabulary. I try the garden book words on him occasionally and he looks quite blank."
"It is giving the plants a little extra food from the surface. So it sinks gradually in or the rain carries it down with it. A gentle process and the roots are not disturbed. The other process may produce indigestion, you see."
Adam and Eve carefully replaced the unplanted roots in the hamper and gave a sigh.
"Oh, dear! All our work. You might as well have gone to see Mrs Gunnet."
"Oh, no," said Adam, "because I have learnt a great deal and can help you another time."
It was a good thing for me and the border that the Master had looked so grave over it, for his Reverence was duly impressed with the necessity of the case, and Griggs and a helpful stranger were hard at work next day and the next, and by the end of that week the border lay smooth and brown and neat with hopeful green patches at intervals. Jim and I and the Young Man had been very busy arranging those patches, and I hoped the front plants would not grow taller than the back, but a good deal had been left to luck. The evening primroses and marigolds and weeds had disappeared, I hoped for good. Time proved that this was too hopeful a view to take of weeds.