120 GARDENING BY MYSELF. 



Then I think the mischievous thrips, too 

 small to trace save by their mischief; being 

 (to quote Carlyle) *' like grains of gunpow- 

 der — singly contemptible, but highly re- 

 spectable in mass ;" I think they have brows- 

 ed upon my poor seedlings in preference to 

 older plants. I have sowed both asters and 

 phlox again, for replanting. 



It is pretty to note the quickened prog- 

 ress of things, as the season gets fairly un- 

 der way, and plants begin to realize that if 

 they are to make a show at all, they must 

 be about it. How fast the slender verbena 

 widens out into a spread of beauty — in what 

 a hurry the sw^eet peas come out ; purple 

 and white and painted ladies jostling each 

 other with soft wings ! Seedling petunias 

 display their eccentricities, the last one 

 open, having a large white blossom with a 

 deep purple stain in the centre, as if one of 

 my pansies were stationed there on guard. 

 How fairly the geraniums unfold leaf after 

 leaf, like a ship crowding sail as the breeze 

 freshens ! By the way, it was a little incau- 



