56 AN ISLAND GARDEN 



be attended to, cut back, repotted, and the soil 

 enriched for winter blooming. Every day I at- 

 tend to them, a few at a time. I cannot spare 

 much time from my planting, weeding, watering, 

 transplanting, and so forth, in the garden, but 

 soon they will be all done. Began to transplant a 

 few of the hundreds of the main body of Sweet 

 Pea plants into the ground, carefully covering each 

 bed as I finished with breadths of light mosquito 

 netting to make them sparrow-proof. As I was 

 working busily I heard the sweet calling of cur- 

 lews, and looking up saw six of them wheeling 

 overhead. Such sociable birds ! They replied to 

 my challenge as if I had been one of themselves, 

 and as long as their calls were answered, lingered 

 near, but being forgotten presently drifted off on 

 the wind, their clear whistle sounding fainter and 

 fainter as they were lost in the distance. All the 

 rest of this day was spent in setting out Sweet 

 Peas, and it will take more than a whole day more 

 to finish, for I put them all round against the 

 fence outside, and into every space I can spare 

 for them within. After tea I hunted slugs as 

 usual, and scattered ashes and lime, but I really 

 feel that my friends the toads have done me the 

 inestimable favor of reducing their hideous num- 

 bers, for certainly there are less than last year so 

 far. Early in April, as I was vigorously hoeing 

 in a corner, I unearthed a huge toad, to my per- 

 fect delight and satisfaction ; he had lived all 

 winter, he had doubtless fed on slugs all the 

 autumn. I could have kissed him on the spot! 

 Very carefully I placed him in the middle of a 



