"Must it have another name? Is that the rule? I told my mother the gardener was an Ignoramus. She might have written in the vulgar tongue."
"Did you mean me or Griggs?"
"Griggs, of course."
"Then you were wrong. But I remember now, I was studying its picture this morning in the catalogue. Tritoma stands for red-hot poker. It will look fine at the back."
"Well, you are getting on," said the Young Man, in tones of admiration. "But why won't they say 'poker' and have done with it?"
"I wish they would. It is very trying of them. See what a lot you are learning. This is much more improving for a son of Adam than visiting old women and babies."
"Much! And I like it much better, which shows it is good for me."
"Ah, I don't know about that. Still, it does strike me as absurd to send a young man fresh from college to visit old women and babies. I can't think what you say to them."
"I say 'Did ums was ums' to the babies. But I am not quite fresh from college, you know. I talk some kind of sense to the mothers; at least, I hope so."
He was making a big hole and I was holding out a big root to fill it.