10 AN ISLAND GARDEN 



" but you will be lovely in my sight if you will 

 help me to destroy mine enemy ; " and with that I 

 turned the box on its side and out they skipped 

 into a perfect paradise of food and shade. All 

 summer I came upon them in different parts of 

 the garden, waxing fatter and fatter till they were 

 as round as apples. In the autumn baby toads 

 no larger than my thumb nail were found hop- 

 ping merrily over the whole island. There were 

 sixty in that first importation ; next summer I 

 received ninety more. But alas ! small dogs dis- 

 cover them in the grass and delight to tear and 

 worry them to death, and the rats prey upon them 

 so that many perish in that way ; yet I hope to keep 

 enough to preserve my garden in spite of fate. 



In France the sale of toads for the protection 

 of gardens is universal, and I find under the head 

 of " A Garden Friend," in a current newspaper, 

 the following item : 



" One is amused, in walking through the great 

 Covent Garden Market, London, to find toads 

 among the commodities offered for sale. In such 

 favor do these familiar reptiles stand with English 

 market gardeners that they readily command a 

 shilling apiece. . . . The toad has indeed no 

 superior as a destroyer of noxious insects, and as 

 he possesses no bad habits and is entirely inof- 

 fensive himself, every owner of a garden should 

 treat him with the utmost hospitality. It is quite 

 worth the while not only to offer any simple in- 

 ducements which suggest themselves for render- 

 ing the premises attractive to him, but should he 

 show a tendency to wander away from them, to 



