136 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



Said my instructor, with a twinkle of mirth in his eye, 

 " You have been standing in front of your camera instead of 

 behind it; turn it around, my child, and look." 



The child turned it, and was deeply mortified at her utter 

 stupidity; but she laughed to cover her confusion and said: 

 "This reminds me of an episode that occurred at a baby 

 show I once attended in the South. All the negro babies 

 under a year old of the district had been sent in to compete 

 for a prize and as they arrived they were duly ticketed with 

 a large number pinned on the dress. Just before the open- 

 ing hour, an assistant came in haste to the manager and said 

 anxiously, 'We have lost No. 9. Have you seen it? And 

 we have two No. 6's; we are getting all mixed up.' 



"'No,' replied the manager, 'it was there a few minutes 

 ago, for I marked the baby myself it was a girl.' 



" Then followed a hasty search, and a sudden exclamation 

 of satisfaction from the manager, who called out, { Here's No. 

 9; some one has set her wrong side up so she looks like a 6.' " 



More than a week had now slipped away, I had mastered 

 two minor points, but had not ventured to take a picture, and 

 I have to laugh at myself now as I recall my maiden effort. 

 The camera had been bought to gratify my desire to photo- 

 graph flowers, but no one had told me, that, of all objects 

 under the canopy of heaven, flowers are the most difficult, 

 and require technical instruction. I was unaware that four 

 o'clock in the afternoon in a shady place is not quite the 

 condition to set an exposure at 1-25 of a second with a 64 

 diaphragm. The object chosen was a lovely confusion of blue 

 lupines and yellow day lilies, and I spent half an hour in set- 

 ting up the camera, and measured the distance at least three 

 times, anxiously inspecting the various contrivances to be 

 set. My cheeks grew hot and my hand unsteady while I 

 tried to pluck up courage to squeeze the bulb. It sounds 



