lOO GARDENING BY MYSELF. 



seize and bear away your very loveliest 

 blue hyacinth, just then in its glory. Per- 

 haps a brown grub or cut-worm, working 

 away underground, will mow off a dahlia 

 shoot here, and a fine seedling hedysarum 

 there, with a few sweet peas and other tri- 

 fles ; making his night-meal of your most 

 hopeful little plants, and leaving a mournful 

 blank where yesterday stood the fresh young 

 tuft of leaves. 



Well, to him, at least, you can deal out 

 justice. It is not easy to reach the other 

 marauders — not even when the rabbit re- 

 turns for a rose geranium and your first 

 verbena blossoms ; but the cut-worm can be 

 found. He is hiding there close to the 

 plant he has ruined ; generally a little below 

 the surface ; waiting to rest himself and di- 

 gest the chrysanthemum, before he marches 

 off for a change of diet in China asters. I 

 think in most courts, even in our day, his 

 sentence would be : 



" Guilty, and not recommended to mercy." 



In all such cases, plant again, and do not 



