Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/153

 I shall occupy two rooms in my phalanstery. I shall wield a spade under the eye of the gardening instructor."

"You won't stick to it for a week."

"There you go! I should never say so rude a thing as that to my employer. You see, Blake, I shall be the most unskilful of the derelicts gathered under the wing of the Crane. I produce as little that is useful as any one of this chain gang, but I consume more than a thousand of them put together. I am myself a problem that England must solve in the near future. My fellow tramps consume merely beer and sausages and mashed, when they can get these delicacies, but I'm a purple and fine linen vagabond, equally useless and much more destructive. I've never garnered eight-and-a-half bushels of wheat of my own growing, nor dug up six tons of potatoes, yet, in spite of your sneer regarding my early quitting, I'll bet you a sovereign that, to use a horticultural simile, I shall prove the last rose of summer left blooming alone when my vagrant companions have stampeded and gone."

"I'm not a betting man," said Blake. "Now, what about this heap of letters? If Crane gets