LITTLE GARDENS 



peared, somewhere, somehow, and a new drove 

 — herd — swarm — flock — what is the term? — Is 

 required to keep the garden free from Insects. 

 With their quick and slimy tongues they catch 

 flies, beetles, grubs and other preying creatures; 

 and then, too, they are company. It Is amusing 

 to see them swell, as If with indignation, when 

 you pick them up and stroke their backs, and 

 note the blinking of their beady eyes. They have 

 a soft and chlrr-r-ring call that may be heard on 

 a still, warm evening as you loiter among your 

 lilies and roses, so faint and tender that it gibes 

 with the perfume and the coming of the stars. 



There is another garden friend, too, that It 

 is worth while to cultivate, at least, to avoid de- 

 stroying: the ladybird, or ladybug. This tiny 

 beetle with red wing cases spotted with black, 

 the unthinking will crush, as they like to crush 

 anything from caterpillars to elephants; yet It 

 thrives on aphides, the slow-moving, slow-witted 

 plant-lice that colonize on stems and leaves and 

 suck the vegetable juices, giving them to the 

 ants, their milkers, In tiny globules of fluid. And 

 If you have a pool, and have failed to stock It 

 with gold and silver fish or " pumpkin-seeds " — 

 206 



