WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 115 



thunder-shower ? All my life long, no one has 

 been able to answer me that question. Why, 

 after a heavy shower, and in the midst of it, do 

 such multitudes of toads, especially little ones, 

 hop about on the gravel-walks ? For many 

 years, I believed that they rained down ; and I 

 suppose many people think so still. They are 

 so small, and they come in such numbers only 

 in the shower, that the supposition is not a vio- 

 lent one. " Thick as toads after a shower," is 

 one of our best proverbs. I asked an explana- 

 tion of this of a thoughtful woman, indeed, a 

 leader in the great movement to have all the 

 toads hop in any direction, without any distinc- 

 tion of sex or religion. Her reply was, that the 

 toads come out during the shower to get water. 

 This, however, is not the fact. I have discovered 

 that they come out not to get water. I deluged 

 a dry flower-bed, the other night, with pailful 

 after pailful of water. Instantly the toads came 



