134 ROUND ABOUT CHICAGO 



It seems as if more and more in the cities, 

 the weeds and the boys were coming to be 

 classed together as troublesome and superfluous 

 things. 



How I hate the smug and pompous personage 

 who is the leading light of one particular asso- 

 ciation, as he briskly makes his rounds, planning 

 new devastations, and causing the children to 

 flee at his coming ; for has he not decreed that the 

 precious vacant lots are not to be degraded into 

 playgrounds, but shall stand, mowed and trimmed 

 and untrampled, sleek monuments to the glory 

 of his association? 



Down with improvement associations, say I, 

 and our big boy and all the other boys shout 

 assent. 



It is but a few summers since I looked forward 

 eagerly to the coming of July, for then my thistle 

 field bloomed in beauty and honey-sweet fra- 

 grance. A path led down from the sidewalk 

 diagonally across the low-lying field, and here I 

 walked daily, my eyes just at the level of the 

 thistle tops, whose irregular heads made a purple 

 mist for me to look through. In the morning 

 coolness they were so fresh and sweet and in the 

 afternoon sunshine so heavy with perfume, and 

 always so brave and sturdy and flourishing! 



