VII 



THE WILD GARDEN 



I HAVE found much Interest and satisfaction 

 in the growing of wild flowers and wild animals 

 in confined spaces, especially in stocking a yard 

 that till then was bare of material. It was hard 

 on some of the captives — much as if I had 

 brought wolves and albatrosses out of the wild, 

 and restrained them to a yard in town. Others, 

 however, wxre thankful, and proved it by flour- 

 ishing as they had not flourished in the meadows 

 and by the roadside. In my strolls to the coun- 

 try I would carry a botany box and fetch it back 

 filled with small plants, roots and cuttings, some 

 of which died in disgust before the week was out. 

 I also brought toads. In the first warm weather 

 the new-born hoppers are out in the waste places, 

 and I would gather up half a dozen and put them 

 into the yard, to get ripe. In time, I thought, 

 there would be toads enough in town to be of 

 human service, but most of them have disap- 

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