Joan Silver-pin 315 



before the photographer did. The cats did not have 

 to watch the wind and sun and rain, to pick out plates 

 and pack plate-holders, and gather ray-fillers and 

 cloth and lens, and adjust the tripod, and fix the 

 camera and focus, and think, and focus, and think, 

 and then wait till the wind ceased blowing. So 

 when they found it, they broke down every slender 

 stalk and rolled in it till the ground was tamped down 

 as hard as if one of our lazy road-menders had been 

 at it. Valerian has in England as an appropriate folk 

 name, " Cats'-fancy." The pretty little annual, Ne- 

 mophila, makes also a favorite rolling-place for our 

 cat ; while all who love cats have given them Catnip 

 and seen the singular intoxication it brings. The 

 sight of a cat in this strange ecstasy over a bunch 

 of Catnip always gives me a half-sense of fear ; she 

 becomes such a truly wild creature, such a miniature 

 tiger. 



In The Art of Gardening, by J. W., Gent., 1683, 

 the author says of Marigolds : " There are divers 

 sorts besides the common as the African Marigold, 

 a Fair bigge Yellow Flower, but of a very Naughty 

 Smell." I cannot refrain, ere I tell more of the 

 Marigold's naughtiness, to copy a note written in 

 this book by a Massachusetts bride whose new hus- 

 band owned and studied the book two hundred years 

 ago ; for it gives a little glimpse of old-time life. Jn 

 her exact little handwriting are these words : 



" Planted in Potts, 1720: An Almond Stone, an Eng- 

 lish Wallnut, Cittron Seeds, Pistachica nutts, Red Damsons, 

 Leamon seeds, Oring seeds and Daits." 



