There was one person in the establishment of Dr. Riccabocca, who was
satisfied neither with the marriage of his master nor the arrival of
Violante--and that was our friend Lenny Fairfield. Previous to the
all-absorbing duties of courtship, the young peasant had secured a very
large share of Riccabocca's attention. The sage had felt interest in the
growth of this rude intelligence struggling up to light. But what with
the wooing, and what with the wedding, Lenny Fairfield had sunk very
much out of his artificial position as pupil, into his natural station
of under-gardener. And on the arrival of Violante, he saw, with natural
bitterness, that he was clean forgotten, not only by Riccabocca, but
almost by Jackeymo. It was true that the master still lent him books,
and the servant still gave him lectures on horticulture. But Riccabocca
had no time nor inclination now to amuse himself with enlightening that
tumult of conjecture which the books created. And if Jackeymo had been
covetous of those mines of gold buried beneath the acres now fairly
taken from the Squire (and good-naturedly added rent-free, as an aid to
Jemima's dower), before the advent of the young lady whose future dowry
the produce was to swell--now that she was actually under the eyes of
the faithful servant, such a stimulus was given to his industry, that he
could think of nothing else but the land, and the revolution he designed
to effect in its natural English crops. The garden, save only the
orange-trees, was abandoned entirely to Lenny, and additional laborers
were called in for the field-work. Jackeymo had discovered that one
part of the soil was suited to lavender, that another would grow
chamomile. He had in his heart apportioned a beautiful field of rich
loam to flax; but against the growth of flax the Squire set his face
obstinately. That most lucrative, perhaps, of all crops, when soil and
skill suit, had, it would appear, been formerly attempted in England
much more commonly than it is now; since you will find few old leases
which do not contain a clause prohibitory of flax, as an impoverishment
of the land. And though Jackeymo learnedly endeavored to prove to the
Squire that the flax itself contained particles which, if returned to
the soil, repaid all that the crop took away, Mr. Hazeldean had his
old-fashioned prejudices on the matter, which were insuperable. "My
forefathers," quoth he, "did not put that clause in their leases without
good cause; and as the Casino lands are entailed on Frank, I have no
right to gratify your foreign whims at his expense."
To make up for the loss of the flax, Jackeymo resolved to convert a very
nice bit of pasture into orchard ground, which he calculated would bring
in £10 net per acre by the time Miss Violante was marriageable. At this,
the Squire pished a little; but as it was quite clear that the land
would be all the more valuable hereafter for the fruit trees, he
consented to permit the "grass land" to be thus partially broken up.
All these changes left poor Lenny Fairfield very much to himself--at a
time when the new and strange devices which the initiation into book
knowledge creates, made it most desirable that he should have the
constant guidance of a superior mind.
One evening after his work, as Lenny was returning to his mother's
cottage very sullen and very moody, he suddenly came in contact with
Sprott the tinker.