in bloom: but my companion would not give me time to examine them:
I must go with him, across the wet grass, to a remote sequestered
corner, the most important place in the grounds, because it
contained HIS garden. There were two round beds, stocked with a
variety of plants. In one there was a pretty little rose-tree. I
paused to admire its lovely blossoms.

'Oh, never mind that!' said he, contemptuously. 'That's only Mary
Ann's garden; look, THIS is mine.'

After I had observed every flower, and listened to a disquisition
on every plant, I was permitted to depart; but first, with great
pomp, he plucked a polyanthus and presented it to me, as one
conferring a prodigious favour. I observed, on the grass about his
garden, certain apparatus of sticks and corn, and asked what they
were.

'Traps for birds.'

'Why do you catch them?'

'Papa says they do harm.'

'And what do you do with them when you catch them?'

'Different things. Sometimes I give them to the cat; sometimes I
cut them in pieces with my penknife; but the next, I mean to roast
alive.'

'And why do you mean to do such a horrible thing?'