THE YARD 3 



wood-lice or sow-bugs, the rose-bugs, the 

 McGonigle boy, the caterpillars that strip 

 the zinnias, the blue beetles on the asters, 

 the mealybugs that spread over the cacti, the 

 scale that dot the palms, the hard-shelled, 

 many-legged wire-worms that burrow 

 through and kill the roots of bachelor-but- 

 tons, and our experimental louseworts, coil- 

 ing like ammonites when shaken out; and 

 we stir up potato-bugs and seventeen-year 

 locusts when we gather our hay crop with 

 a lawn-mower. 



But while the flora and fauna of the re- 

 gion are not exciting or numerous, there 

 are more of both than you would suspect 

 from the local geography. The yard is 

 bounded on the north by the carpenter's 

 yard, with its piles of lumber; on the east 

 by a board fence and a lilac-bush ; on the 

 west by small boys and a gravel dump 

 on the far side, to be sure, of three other 

 yards ; on the south by the two-story and 

 basement brick house where we live. 



The house is one of a row that has uni- 

 formity without duplication, and is supplied 

 with all modern improvements except com- 



