W/iat is Dirtf 131 



Therefore let nothing be lost. Cast no crumb of bread into the gutter, 

 to be washed into the sea. That is not such casting of bread upon the 

 water as will return after many days. The days are too many ; more than 

 you will ever live to see. 



But let us return to Nymphalia and her flowers, and see what a lesson 

 they may teach. 



In three days they were faded, — already on the road to prove my 

 words, that they were nothing but dirt. I took them, with Nymphalia's 

 consent, and in her presence jammed them into the bottom of an earthen 

 vase, poured in a little water, covered the vase with a plate, and put it 

 aside in a warm room. I looked after and kept it moist for a few weeks ; 

 when my compost of clean white paper, with its golden border, and all it 

 held of straw, stems, leaves, petals, anthers, stamens, in many colors, and 

 sweet odors (sweet as the rose), were now a plastic mass, — all but a 

 little woody fibre : that I burned, and added the ashes ; and then, a few 

 days after, I carried the vase and its contents into our sitting-room, and 

 placed it where the bouquet had stood at first, upon Thalia's work- 

 table. 



My library opens out of this room. The door is thin, and I can over- 

 hear conversation. Sometimes, when sitting as I am now, very still, quietly 

 writing at my desk, I overhear words not intended for my ears. I did that 

 day. Here are some of them. The queen who presides over this realm 

 has entered, and is looking about to see if any stray flies, or specks of dust, 

 are here, unbidden and unwelcome guests. 



Strange how all neat housewives war with house-flies ! Do they know 

 where they come from, where they go, how they are propagated, how 

 long they live, how the seed is kept over until next year } But, more 

 than that, do they know they cannot do without them; that they are 

 Nature's scavengers? When the summer is hot, if there were no flies, 

 tliere would be sickness. 



" Flies make dirt." 



Yes, I know it. It is only dirt in the wrong place. So you must shut 

 the flies out with wire screens to windows and doors. That is the way I 

 do. The few that get in are driven out with paper fly-brushes, or killed. 

 But, after all, it is as well that we should know that the power of the fly 



