XIV 



LETTERS TO MARCO 



too, in a garden do much good in the same 

 way, and should never be destroyed ; they are 

 invaluable in a strawberry-bed. I think you, 

 dear Marco, with your sense of the quaint 

 and grotesque, would greatly delight in a tame 



Toad, drawn from life. 



toad as a pet. It is a dignified-looking 

 creature. It breathes through two little pin- 

 holes for nostrils. Its mouth is wide ; few 

 insects escape it when once seized by the 

 lightning dart of the tongue. It scratches a 

 hole in the ground, in which it sits with its 

 head and shoulders out, or ensconces itself 



