386 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
had been begun last autumn. The holes had been dug 
the day previous, and Mr. Todd brought the trees from 
his grove in the hay-cart, with plenty of earth about their 
roots, and after they were set straight and true, the boys 
filled in the holes and tramped the earth down firmly. 
After this the little boys brought water, four pails being 
considered a sufficient drink for each tree. 
Next, a dozen shrubs were planted in the eastern corner 
of the bit of ground where it rolled up toward the brush- 
lot and the earth was deep and good. They were varieties 
that would flower in May and June, before the closing of 
school. Syringa, Weigela, Yellow Forsythia, Purple and 
White Lilac, Snowballs, Spireas, Scarlet Flowering Quince, 
Strawberry Shrub, and Deutzia. Between this shrubbery 
a little strip along the north fence had been made into a 
long bed of about thirty feet, and the girls had been asked 
to collect enough hardy plants from about the farm gar- 
dens to fill it; for there is little use in planting bedding or 
annual flowers in school yards, for these are later in start- 
ing and are killed by early frost. 
The girls had been very successful in their task, and a 
goodly assortment of old-fashioned, hardy plants, that 
many a gardener would envy, was the result: Iris of 
several shades, Peonies, Sweet Williams, Larkspur, Fox- 
gloves, Honesty, May Pinks, Lemon Lilies, Johnny- 
jumpers, and several good roots of Cinnamon and Damask 
Roses were among the collection, while Sarah Barnes’ 
grandmother sent a basket of the roots of hardy button 
Chrysanthemums — pink, white, crimson, yellow, and 
tawny—that she said would hold out from October to 
Thanksgiving if they had ‘‘ bushes between them and the 
