GARDEN ENEMIES 



bumps around against the ceiling until he 

 knocks himself senseless, and then falls onto 

 the floor with a heavy thud. Still worse 

 is a horrible brown worm, which turns into 

 a fat moth with a mania for crawling 

 around indoors and which is so difficult to 

 kill that I prefer to catch it and put it out 

 rather than go through with the disagree- 

 able process. Both of these creatures live 

 in the ground, and the first intimation of 

 their presence one has is when some beauti- 

 ful, well-grown stalk of phlox or sweet 

 William suddenly droops and comes off in 

 the hand at a touch. The vicious grub has 

 girdled it just below the surface of the 

 ground, and then crawled off, one knows 

 not whither, until another wilted stalk marks 

 its trail. When this occurs, I drop every- 

 thing instantly, seize the first pointed im- 

 plement I can lay hands on, and dig all 

 o 193 



