“I resumed: ‘Further we must underpin the runners and work up the earth herring-wise. And then there is the daubing.... It will be a matter of full three days’ work. On the fourth day I can set out before sunrise. You may take it that I will be back by evening, and we will, if you please, plant the very next morning—that is on the fifth day—lest the stock should suffer; for I have always found it,’ I added profoundly, ‘of invariable service to plant immediately. I have indeed lost in the past one or two most valuable sets of trees—pear trees—by delaying at this season of the year so much as twenty-four hours before putting them in the ground.’
“As I thus spoke he nodded frequently, admiring my talent and knowledge of these affairs, and I took occasion, as evening wore on, to ground him yet more deeply in this fascinating subject, which I had already begun to feel was mine.
“The next day with the first of the light we both of us set out to the orchard. He summoned his workmen and our labours engrossed us for many hours during which I fed his enthusiasm with renewed tales of marvels in the way of fruit-growing—and especially of pear trees. That particular pear called ‘The Glory of Heaven’ increased wonderfully as I proceeded until at last it had grown to such a size that each individual fruit was as large as a child’s head, and half a dozen of them would fetch a piece of gold ‘if’ (I was careful to add) ‘if they are properly packed! For I regret to say that, simple as the detail is, the neglect of good packing has been the ruin of most speculators in this line.’
“During the second day of our labours I dilated upon other details of the trade which occurred to me as I went along. I especially insisted upon what I called the maximum point, and for this he was all ears.
“‘There is a limit,’ I said, ‘to your plantation, after which the expenses of management begin to eat into the profits earned. A first small speculation of 300 trees, such as you have here, is, of course, a mere bagatelle. It would provide you with amusement, but no appreciable income. The most profitable size of orchard is far larger.... In such a situation as yours,’ said I, looking round with an air of a connoisseur, ‘and with such soil as this,’ and with that I took up a clod and carefully crumbled it in my fingers, ‘possessing acidulated properties of this type, but corrected by some slow exhaust of porphyritic matter, it would need but a top dressing of bardulm and an occasional picketing of charcoal to make some 3,000 trees produce a regular annual profit of not less than 200 pieces of gold—and that upon an original expenditure less than double the amount. I would estimate your return with care and good fortune at quite fifty per cent., but at any rate you could calculate upon thirty per cent. But more than 3,000 trees,’ said I, musing, ‘would, I fear, be an error; the earnings after that get eaten into by expenses.’
“He interrupted me with the eager words: ‘I should be happy——’ I lifted my hand to check him and said, ‘No! I assure you, that even such a number as 3,500 would be just beyond the line, and as you approach 5,000 you would find the expense absorbing nearly all your profit. It is as great an error to over-do these things as to starve them. Let us fix the number at 3,000 and the capital expenditure at 400 pieces of gold. Then I think you will not be disappointed.’
“The third day I spent overlooking the levelling of the ground and its last preparation, as also in making mysterious marks with little pegs and jotting down notes in a book: all of which excited the owner to the last degree, and left him (as the phrase goes) with his tongue hanging out for the new trees.
“That evening my kind host after some little embarrassment made me an offer. Would I, he asked, share in the profits of the enterprise? I at once refused. My decision surprised him: but, as he pressed the project upon me, I told him that gratitude was only a part of my decision. I owed him everything; he had found me—it seemed a month ago indeed, though it was but three days—in rags; he had clothed me, fed me and, what was more, trusted me. His trust, I assured him, would not be deceived. ‘I shall be content,’ I concluded, ‘with the salary proper to my position’ (he at once mentioned a sum, which I halved), ‘but I will go so far as this; if, upon the opening of the fourth year, your profits shall be found to have exceeded what I have suggested, if you make in the three years more than 600 pieces of gold, at 200 pieces a year, which I suggest as the probable result, I will accept, though reluctantly, one half of the excess. For I am confident,’ and here I put an especially serious tone into my voice, ‘that we shall do better than I have said. I have ever held it my duty to give a conservative estimate and to avoid the disappointment of those who employ me. To this, among other things, do I ascribe the great success which attended me during my earlier years, and which only failed me through the deplorable accidents I related to you on our first meeting.’
“My host appeared a little confused at my probity, or rather, at my scruples; but he told me that he had always found such errors to be upon the right side, and assured me that I should not lose by the austerity of my temper. Nor did I....
“We spent the rest of the evening looking at the illuminations in his fine library. I expressed myself enthralled by them all. I lingered with especial care over every representation of an orchard in these pictures, and spoke in the most learned manner of the various fruits therein displayed. As luck would have it we came to one particularly fine painting in which were delineated the most enormous pears of a brilliant golden hue interspersed with soft leaves. ‘This,’ I cried delightedly, ‘is the very fruit of which I have been speaking! How interesting! How exciting!’