“During the time that I was her gardener she wrote the story of ’The Little Merchants,’ and as she did not know very much about Italy and Naples, I gave her most of the points for that highly moral story.  She told me, in fact, that she did not believe she could have written it had it not been for my assistance.  She thought well to begin the story by giving some explanatory ‘Extracts from a Traveler’s Journal’ relative to Italian customs, but afterward she depended entirely on me for all points concerning distinctive national characteristics and the general Italian atmosphere.  As she became aware that I was an educated man and had traveled in many countries, she was curious about my antecedents, but of course my remarks in that direction were very guarded.

“One day, as she was standing looking at me as I was pruning a rose-bush, she made a remark which startled me.  I perfectly remember her words.  ’It seems to me,’ she said, ’that one who is so constantly engaged in observing and encouraging the growth and development of plants should himself grow and develop.  Roses of one year are generally better than those of the year before.  Then why is not the gardener better?’ To these words she immediately added, being a woman of kind impulses, ’But in the case of a good gardener, such as you are, I’ve no doubt he does grow better, year by year.’”

“What was there startling in that little speech?” asked Mrs. Crowder.  “I don’t think she could have said anything less.”

“I will tell you why I was startled,” said her husband.  “Almost those very words—­mark me, almost those very words—­had been said to me when I was working in the wonderful gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, and he was standing by me watching me prune a rose-bush.  That Maria Edgeworth and the great Nebuchadnezzar should have said the same thing to me was enough to startle me.”

To this astounding statement Mrs. Crowder and I listened with wide-open eyes.

“Yes,” said Mr. Crowder; “you may think it amazing that a very ordinary remark should connect ‘The Parents’ Assistant’ with the city of Babylon, but so it was.  In the course of my life I have noticed coincidences quite as strange.

“I spent many years in the city of Babylon, but the wonderful Hanging Gardens interested me more than anything else the great city contained.  At the time of which I have just spoken I was one of Nebuchadnezzar’s gardeners, but not in the humble position which I afterward filled in Ireland.  I had under my orders fifteen slaves, and my principal duty was to direct the labors of these poor men.  These charming gardens, resting upon arches high above the surface of the ground, watered by means of pipes from the river Euphrates, and filled with the choicest flowers, shrubs, and plants known to the civilization of the time, were a ceaseless source of delight to me.  Often, when I had finished the daily work assigned to me and my men, I would wander over other parts of the garden and enjoy its rare beauties.