"What's this about new gardeners?" exclaimed Seldon. This time he did not ask Gruber to sit down.
    Gruber's eyes blinked rapidly. He was in a panic at having been recalled so unexpectedly. "N-new g-gardeners?" he stammered.
    "You said `all the new gardeners.' Those were your words. What new gardeners?"
    Gruber was astonished. "Sure, if there is a new Chief Gardener, there will be new gardeners. It is the custom."
    "I have never heard of this."
    "The last time we had a change of Chief Gardeners, you were not First Minister. It is likely you were not even on Trantor."
    "But what's it all about?"
    "Well, gardeners are never discharged. Some die. Some grow too old and are pensioned off and replaced. Still, by the time a new Chief Gardener is ready for his duties, at least half the staff is aged and beyond their best years. They are all pensioned off generously and new gardeners are brought in."
    "For youth."
    "Partly and partly because by that time there are usually new plans for the gardens and it is new ideas and new schemes we must have. There are almost five hundred square kilometers in the gardens and parklands and it usually takes some years to reorganize it and it is myself who will have to supervise it all. Please, First Minister." Gruber was gasping. "Surely a clever man like your own self can find a way to change the blessed Emperor's mind."
    Seldon paid no attention. His forehead was creased in concentration. "Where do the new gardeners come from?"
    "There are examinations on all the worlds-there are always people waiting to serve as replacements. They'll be coming in by the hundreds in a dozen batches. It will take me a year, at the least-"
    "From where do they come? From where?"
    "From any of a million worlds. We want a variety of horticultural knowledge. Any citizen of the Emp............