Mine Enemies 119 



stone wall, to covering the bier of my victim with green leaves, 

 until now in the words of the beloved Nelson the garden 

 expects every woman to do her duty and she does it. Three 

 things denote the experienced gardener: ability to pluck a 

 handful of squirming rose-bugs without qualms and despatch 

 them neatly in a kerosene bath; with a sharp trowel in hand to 

 play at cross-purposes with grubs and cutworms and to win 

 the game; to stand unflinchingly while all sorts of bees, wasps, 

 hornets, green, yellow, striped and red-headed flies gambol 

 about one's head and face. These are the tests that prove the 

 veteran of many summers. Any one cherishing qualms and 

 fears, revulsions and nerves, may chatter glibly about botan- 

 ical names and cultural directions; but if she cannot stand the 

 fire of exigency that meets her at every turn, she will never 

 fight the good fight involved in successful gardening. 



But where shall I begin the enumeration, I, who love the 

 heavenly blue and black velvet coat of the web-worm, who 

 gaze with undisguised admiration on the iridescent metallic 

 beetles, the coppery green armor of the dogbane beetle, the 

 humming-bird moth with its bird-like whiz and movement, 

 on silken butterflies, from the tiny white bride-like ones that 

 hover over the filament stems of the Asperula, to the great 

 yellow and black that hatch all sorts of unmentionable 

 broods ? It is hard to believe that these are real enemies but 

 they are. We must forget our natural history if we would en- 

 joy the fluttering butterflies, balancing themselves on the edge 

 of a flower. If these lovely creatures would only sip sweets 

 perpetually and emancipate themselves from domestic duties, 

 we should greet them cordially. Butterflies have but two 

 lawful functions to act as a poetic supplement to a fragrant 

 flower, and to serve as a text on immortality. 



The first pest of the season is the little stiff whitish worm, 

 less than an inch long, found under the leaves used as mulch 



