OUR OLD-GARDEN BIRDS. 



135 



was interrupted. The arrival of a customer caused 

 me to be left alone for a short time, and, sitting by 

 the well, I quickly drifted into dreams of other days. 

 Have we been wise, I mused, in discarding so much 

 that characterized old times, even in such a matter 

 as garden flowers ? for admitting the greater charms 



of importations, they do not seem to attract the 

 birds. My eyes fell upon the showy cone-flower 

 that had been brought from the near-by meadows, 

 and in one corner of the garden there was a thrifty 

 centaury, now a mass of bright pink-purple bloom. 

 Why this latter flower is so generally overlooked is 



