138 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



One amazing patch of ground, not far from 

 our house, is grown over with cat-brier; 

 and after a gale all the waste paper in the 

 county seems to have blown there and 

 caught in the thorns of it, so that from a 

 distance the waving and fluttering are as of 

 an army with banners. On a windy day 

 in early spring I found a dead leaf spinning 

 like a windmill. Ordinarily a leaf will turn 

 a few times, then turn back ; but this whirli- 

 gig kept on endlessly in the same direc- 

 tion. I looked at it closely. It was an 

 elm leaf blown from a distant tree and 

 caught by the stem in a cat-brier tendril. 

 It had freedom of rotation, but a swell 

 in the stem prevented it from falling out, 

 while a curve in the leaf gave the wind a 

 purchase on it. 



But these antics and occasionals are of 

 moment only as they enforce notice to the 

 steadiness, order, and beauty that are every- 

 where qualities that escape us because 

 we take them for granted. For the best 

 is the cheapest, and the very best costs 

 nothing. Air, water, room to move, friend- 

 ship, love, these have no money value. 



