FLOWERS AND INSECTS 153 



a peck, and the price in Schoharie is -^ of 

 6% per cent, higher than it is in Putnam. 

 The farmers seemed to me to be gifted with 

 absolute mathematical genius when I read 

 about them in the arithmetics. Perhaps 

 degeneration has set in among them since 

 my school-days. Perhaps they don't hold 

 out now for a forty-seventh of a cent on a 

 potato trade. Perhaps 



There 's that McGonigle boy trying to 

 stamp down our new rose-bushes ! I must 

 pause for a moment to kill him. 



No; he has escaped, and is at this mo- 

 ment uttering gibes from the stronghold 

 of his own yard. I fear that Reginald 

 was born with a desire to rule. He has 

 chosen the wrong time and the wrong land 

 to do it. Most people do like to rule, if it 

 comes to that ; but see how unfair it is to 

 the other people, because they want to do 

 the same thing. There is one thing worse, 

 and that is to be ruled. Still, in our cities 

 we cannot complain, for there we are sel- 

 dom governed : we are merely taxed. It 

 will make Reginald quite unhappy, when 

 he grows up, to realize how little restraint 



