GARDENING BY MYSELF. 



55 



tie candytufts and alyssums that have come 

 up out-of-doors on their own responsibilitj^ 

 will fight the frost and live it through ; but 

 your thin-skinned house seedlings are quite 

 another matter. Their tissues are delicate 

 with w^armth and pettiilg ; and unless they 

 are hardened off before they are set out, the 

 hardening process will prove fatal. You re- 

 member the little girl who went to school 

 with the tears freezing on her cheeks and 

 her mittens in her pocket. Being asked the 

 cause of this arrangement, she replied that 

 she '' wanted to be tough." Well — you 

 must "toughen" your plants more gently 

 than that. When they are well up, set the 

 seed-box further from the stove; and when 

 the potted seedlings are well estabhshed, 

 give them cooler air, and more of it, from 

 day to day, that they may be ready to brave 

 the outer world. 



Do you know, unscientific people who 

 love flow^ers, how it is that your pets freeze 

 to death ? It was a delightful discovery to 

 me, when I first understood it. Each plant, 



