THE MAGIC OF FLOWERS. 



207 



by dozens for their bath and drink. I never knew, before the 

 arrival of my pool, that we had such a wonderful variety of 

 birds in Illinois, and, would you believe it, two brown thrushes 

 did me the great honor to nest and bring up their family not 

 forty feet from their bathing place. 



What lessons Nature teaches us, restless women! Get out 

 into the wide spaces, for nothing is more interesting than a 

 garden, or more absorbing than watching the birds. I am won- 

 dering if birds have memories. With all the other joys of spring, 



Rose hedge at "Lilac Lodge." 



will they come back, think you, to my pool this second year, mat- 

 ing, nesting, with their glorious melody? After the nests are 

 built, and little families have come, all bird songs seem to wane. 

 Perhaps they are like the humans for, after matrimony, come 

 greater responsibilities, and oftimes "a moan comes with the 

 music." 



We had another idea which should be exploded, that aquatics 

 are but for the lily ponds of the rich. In the bottom of my pool 

 I put a box of rich dirt, covered it all around with stones, and 

 planted it with "water poppy" and "water hyacinths." Planted in 

 May, they bloomed all summer. This summer I shall plant some 

 of the hybrid lilies. That little gem of water shining out of the 

 emerald grass is visited all day long, not only by the birds, but 

 by little children, bless them, and even the dogs stop in their mad 

 race to quench their thirst. The friends that scoffed, now pause 



