"Yes, sir. Is it at the house?"
"No. Yonder."
He pointed to a low cottage covered with a large wisteria, and built
almost in the middle of the great fruit and vegetable garden, while
between it and the great yew hedge lay the range of glass houses.
"You can find your way?"
"Yes, sir," I said, feeling damped again by his cold manner. "Are you
going?"
"Yes, now."
"Shall I fetch my box, sir?"
"No; I told Tom to take it to the cottage. You would like to look round
and see where you'll work? Don't want to begin to-night, eh?"
"Yes, sir, I'm ready, if you like," I said.
"Humph!" he ejaculated. "Well, perhaps we'll go and look at the fires
by and by. You're my apprentice now, you know."
"Am I, sir?"
"Yes; didn't Brother Ezra tell you?"
I shook my head.
"Don't matter. Come to learn glass. There's the houses; go and look
round. I'll call you when supper's ready."
I don't know whether I felt in good spirits or bad; but soon ceased to
think of everything but what I was seeing, as, being about to become a
glass boy, I entered one of the great hothouses belonging to the large
range of glass buildings.
A warm sweet-scented puff of air saluted me as I raised the copper latch
of the door, and found myself in a great red-tiled vinery, with long
canes trained from the rich soil at the roots straight up to the very
ridge, while, with wonderful regularity, large bunches like inverted
cones of great black grapes hung suspended from the tied-in twigs.
There were rows of black iron pipes along the sides from which rose a
soft heat, and the effect of this was visible in the rich juicy-looking
berries covered with a pearly bloom, while from succulent shoot, leaf,
and tendril rose the delicious scent that had saluted me as soon as I
entered the place.
From this glass palace of a house, as it seemed to me, I went down into
a far hotter place, where the walls were whitewashed and the glass roof
very low. There was a peculiar odour of tan here, and as I closed the
door after me the atmosphere felt hot and steamy.
But the sight that greeted my eyes made me forget all other sensations,
for there all along the centre were what seemed to be beautiful,
luxuriant aloes; and as I thought of the old story that they bloomed
only once in a hundred years, I began to wonder how long it was since
one of these spiky-leaved plants had blossomed, and then I cried
excitedly: "Pine-apples!"
True enough they were, for I had entered a large pinery where fruits
were ripening and others coming on in the most beautiful manner, while
what struck me most was the perfection and neatness of all the place.