io8 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



thing that grows, with every shade of red 

 and yellow known to the painter in its 

 leaves, and the sun turning them into 

 gems and stained-glass windows. Why is 

 it that with our commercial determination 

 we have never made merchandise of this 

 splendor ? Leaves that have been waxed 

 and ironed keep their color for a long 

 time, and one would suppose that a bou- 

 quet of them would sell in the highways 

 as readily as roses. I gladly note that they 

 are beginning to sell daisies and golden- 

 rod in town, and a girl in Nantucket picked 

 up $150 in a summer by making up books 

 of pressed wild-flowers of that windy, 

 ocean-pounded moorland. 



With a lessening in the humidity that is 

 such a cause of suffering in summer, the 

 temper of the populace improves. You 

 hear less squalling and slapping when you 

 pass the tenements (may the man be for- 

 given who invented those abominations !), 

 and there are not so many tired eyes 

 and lagging steps in the streets. Man was 

 not born to be an amphibian. He pre- 

 fers his air and water separate. Happy, ye 



